Darkness Falls Over Me
by Awatere11
Summary: OK, so this is why I've ben preoccupied ... it is just lurking, something in the shadows. Lisa is gone and everyone else hates me, now IT is back and I am so scared. Scared it may finally take me. Scared that maybe I wouldn't fight it this time. Wherever it wants to drag me to, do I really have any fear left? Not like I will be missed! Rated for Language & incoming SMUT
1. Chapter 1

1

Ianto said goodnight as he slid from the passenger seat, turning to bestow a soft smile on Tosh in the back seat.

Jack nodded and Owen gave a grunt.

Gwen, of course, didn't even look up.

He watched the SUV speed off and sighed as he let himself into his home, switching on the lights and preparing for the night.

.

.

.

Jack hesitated on the front step, wondering if he was getting soft in his old age, then raised his hand and knocked.

There was no sound from within the house, and he wasn't sure that he had been heard but as he raised his hand to knock again he heard the clicking of locks.

Like, several locks.

Like…Jesus, at least six.

Finally the door cracked open and bright light spewed out onto the street as a familiar eyeball appeared, looking him up and down.

"Hi"

The eye blinked and the door slammed shut.

Jack stepped back with shock and Ianto Jones slid from the interior like toothpaste from a tube.

"Sir?"

"I need an extra pair of hands, Weevil." Jack shrugged ad Ianto grimaced, his eyes sliding sideways.

"Owen?"

"Ianto, you need to get your hands dirty eventually" Jack said calmly, "This refusal to work after hours is wearing thin."

"Not true!" Ianto bristled, "I work after hours all the time, the archives and in the hub 'til all hours!"

"But not in the field!" Jack growled.

"Like that worked so well last time" Ianto was not normally this belligerent and Jack was slightly confused by the strong will being shown.

"I want you to get in the SUV and come catch a weevil in the lower ward, now!" Jack demanded, watching Ianto have an internal battle before slumping and stomping towards the SUV.

"Ianto?" Jack called and Ianto stopped without turning around, "You gonna lock up?"

"No need" Ianto shook his head as he climbed into the SUV and Jack sighed as he climbed in behind the wheel, unsure how to treat this man.

The weevil was in a carpark and Ianto made a small noise as they pulled up.

Then came the strangest few minutes of Jack's time with Ianto. Ianto was fine chasing it until it ducked behind something or jumped into the shadowy corners. Then, to Jack and the weevil's confusion, Ianto would flee.

Once they got the weevil back to the hub and Ianto calmly walked it to a cell, Jack sought out Owen.

"Well, it might be a form of PTSD from the bloody countryside bullshit!" Owen said as he felt around inside the corpse with a look of determination.

"It was weird Owen" Jack said with a grimace as the body seemed to move, "Like he was scared. Even the bloody weevil was confused."

"Ya got the weevil, right?" Own withdrew his hand and the parasite within.

"Well, yes." Jack sighed.

"So? Who gives a fuck!" Owen dropped the parasite into a jar of liquid and held it up to the light, snorting as it slammed against the glass as it sought a new host.

"I'm tell you Owen, he needs another evaluation!" Jack growled.

The brogues neatly set together at the top of the steps to the autopsy bay parted as Ianto moved away.


	2. Chapter 2

2

Ianto was sliding around the hub with a rubbish bag when the lights went out.

His bloodcurdling scream brought Jack from his office, stumbling as he swore and hit the hand rail, nearly going over.

The emergency lights came on and Ianto was crouched with his gun out, scanning wildly.

"Ianto? Why are you armed in the hub?" Tosh asked from her workstation as she worked, re-establishing control.

"What …. What was that?" Ianto whimpered, his eyes wide as he looked to Jack.

"A power surge" Jack said softly, "I think the power plant just went off line, probably a technical fault."

"Yes, half the city is blacked out" Tosh called out as her fingers skipped over the keyboard.

"Gwen?" Jack turned to her as he held up the cell phone, "dead?"

"No service due to overloading" she agreed.

"Use the internal lines and ask Downing St what the official line is, while Tosh hacks UNIT and gets their version." Jack said as he stepped forward with confidence.

"Er, Jack?" Owen said from the autopsy bay steps, "What about him?"

"Ianto?" Jack swung to see the gun was now holstered as Ianto looked sheepishly at him.

"Sir?"

"Go check on our guests, would you?" Jack pointed down.

"But … the emergency lighting doesn't go down in the cells" Ianto whined, showing uncommon childishness as he pouted.

"Ianto! The lower levels are your responsibility! Get down there!" Jack roared as he lost patience.

Ianto physically shrunk as he looked at Jack and his eyes slid to Owen who was still standing by the autopsy bay, "Will you come with?"

Owen snorted and then burst out laughing, "Go on ya tosser, bloody big kid, afraid of the dark!"

Ianto took a step towards him and then turned to Jack once more, "Can I take Gwen and the Halogen torch?"

"Nope, I need it here!" Gwen said as she checked over files while Tosh held the huge high beam torch.

Ianto walked slowly towards the hallway and then straightened his shoulders like he was going to war.

With the standard flashlight, he headed into the dark.

"You saw that, right?" Jack said to the team, "He's off the charts!"

Owen took a step towards the hallway and frowned.

Owen turned to Jack, "Maybe we should have let him take the…."

The scream was blood curdling and Jack found himself yelling Ianto's name as he flew into the dark without a second thought.

Owen followed, cursing and huffing as he ran into walls, bouncing off them while Jack effortlessly evaded every obstacle.

"Hoe the fuck do you do that!" Owen demanded as he tripped over cables Jack had jumped.

"Know this place like the back of my hand" Jack panted, "Keep up."

Another scream, closer this time and Jack put on a burst of speed as a shot rang out.

Ianto was in the gun range.

Jack slowed and looked around the room swinging the torch but he found nothing.

The lights flickered and he felt …. Something brush his coat and he swung to ask Owen why he was so close, only to find empty space as Owen stood in the doorway.

The lights came on and Owen swore softly as Ianto became illuminated.

He was scrunched into the far corner, his clothes dishevelled and tears streamed down his face as he sobbed.

"Ianto? Hey mate? Put the gun down" Owen said as he stepped around Jack who was still looking about himself to try and work out what his coat had brushed against.

"Where did it go?" Ianto hissed as he looked around the room.

"Ianto?" Owen crouched in front of him and reached out, taking the gun without any struggle.

"Where did it go?" Ianto repeated, his eyes wide and bewildered.

"Where did what go mate?" Owen asked as Jack finally stepped closer.

"The thing in the shadows" Ianto whimpered as he withdrew his now empty hand and began to rub his wrist.

That's when Owen saw the cuts.


	3. Chapter 3

3

"So? Self-inflicted?" Gwen was in her 'cop' mode as she stood with her hands on her hips.

"No, well. I don't know. Maybe" Owen sighed.

"Well, they didn't get there by themselves!" Gwen snorted, "I think it's a cry for attention. "

"What?" Tosh boggled, "explain!"

"Well, after the bloody 'Lisa' debacle he withdrew, just like this and we fussed on him a bit" she pointed at the screen where Ianto was seen sitting on the autopsy table with a look of confusion, "He didn't even get called in for the fairies, was allowed to beg off. Then came the bloody barrens. He was given attention, again."

"We fussed on him a bit?" Tosh scoffed, "Gwen, you wouldn't even look at him!"

"Well, you made up for it" Gwen said as Jack frowned.

"Enough." Jack cut into the argument brewing, "We don't have time for this. Owen?"

"If I didn't know better …. Fuck, it sounds so weird." Owen frowned back, "They don't look like cuts, and they're jagged, not clean."

"So? If a body came in with those wounds?" Jack prompted.

"Well, I would say a weevil but they're too close together, a weevil's claws are spaced further apart" Owen explained.

"So, a young weevil?" Gwen surmised.

"Yeah. A young weevil that somehow snuck into the hub without setting off the sensors and hiding in the gun range for an as yet undetermined length of time because it really wanted to hold hands with the tea boy!" Owen answered dryly.

"Well, I was just surmising!" Gwen said sulkily.

"Well, aren't you bloody Sherlock!" Owen hissed. I go, he tried to make it look like it but didn't know the spacings were off."

"Stop it!" Jack roared, "This isn't helping."

They all looked bashful and moved back to their seats, then jumped as Ianto entered with a tray of mugs.

"Coffee, while you all decide how loopy I am" Ianto said as he slammed the tray down and glared at them.

"Ianto, what did you see?" Jack asked softly and Ianto stepped away from him with a shake of his head.

"To speak of it, gives it power." He replied, turning to leave.

"A Namahage?" Tosh asked with wide eyes, "Ianto? You think a Namahage was in the dark?"

"A what?" Gwen asked.

"Bogeyman" Jack clarified, "Tosh means a bogeyman."

Ianto looked at Owen as he waited for the blowback in three …. Two …. One ….

"Bullshit!" Owen exploded.

Ianto turned and began to leave, no point staying to hear all the things he had already said to himself about his failing sanity.

"Ianto?" Jack called him back.

"The Namahageare demons that warn children not to be lazy or cry" Tosh informed them, "Like a troll or small Ogre with an orange face."

"Every culture has a version" Jack agreed, "Ianto? There is something in the dark?"

Ianto sighed and looked at his feet as he considered and then he spoke.

"When me Mam died I was sent to me Grandys because my father didn't want me. My sister was already off at college and I was just an added burden to a blooming alcoholic. While at the farmhouse, I experienced … I mean. Something in the dark tried to hurt me"

Everyone sat, transfixed.

"A bwgan me Nan called it" Ianto said as he looked at Jack, "like a pixie or … Mara."

Jack had gone still as he stared at Ianto and then his eyes grew wide, "So when we had the case with the Mara, you knew? Is that why you wouldn't help? Why you withdrew? Not because you were still mad about Lisa?"

"They always win, Jack" Ianto said calmly, 'I know that. So do you. I also know it wasn't one of them this time. It …. Smelt."

"Smelt?" Gwen frowned.

"Bullshit!" Owen repeated with his arms folded. "Try another way to get attention but know this, if you self-harm again I ain't stitching you up!"

As the others agreed and Jack turned away with a look of disappointment in him, Ianto deflated with dejection.

Tosh sidled up and touched his arm. "I believe you."

Jack watched the exchange and wondered again about the brush against his coat.


	4. Chapter 4

4

Ianto was cleaning the SUV when Owen found him and leaned back to watch.

Swirls of soap suds as Ianto lovingly scrubbed at the paintwork, twirling little bubbles across the black paint.

"Why you!"

Ianto hesitated and looked at Owen as he wondered if that was a rhetorical question, "Don't know."

Dripping bubbles now, puddling by Ianto's feet as he stood with the sponge hanging limply.

"Yeah? I would have thought it would go after Tosh because she is so weak, or Gwen with her tits that look so danged biteable. The bimbo always gets it" Owen pushed off from the pillar and stepped closer.

Ianto sighed and dropped the sponge in the bucket as he reached around Owen for the hose so he could hose off the soap while it was still wet.

"You know, if this were a horror movie? Right about now I would reveal the fact that you're the only virgin here" Owen snarled, then yelped as a mighty right hook caught him and slammed him back against said pillar.

Ianto swung again, missing and hitting the pillar as Owen fell.

Jack came running in, yelling at them to stop and Ianto laughed hollowly, "Yeah. Now his arse is kissing the ground!"

"Stop it!" Jack roared into Ianto's face. "What was that for? You bloody well tell me. Stop hiding from me!"

Ianto tried to step around Jack but he grabbed him by the arm and dragged him into the hub as Owen meekly followed, knowing this wasn't going to end well for anyone.

Ianto got the humiliation of a replay through three CCTV cameras with the best mics in the business.

He stood silently at the back of the room with his hands behind his back, hiding the swollen knuckles as Tosh and Gwen fussed on Owen's bruised jaw.

"But he's not a virgin" Gwen frowned, "He had Lisa."

"Let me guess, not before marriage?" Jack asked with a scornful leer.

"We were going to have our wedding in two months. Two months and she would have died my wife," Ianto rose and did a hit and run, "Bit like Katie."

Owen snarled as he swung to retort but Ianto was already fleeing down to the archives.

Jack followed.

"Ianto? Is it true?" Jack said softly as he neared where the heat signature was being detected by his VM.

"Go away."

"Come on, please?" Jack sighed, "I didn't mean it to come out like that, and we're all on edge."

He stepped around the stacks and found Ianto standing with his back to him, his shoulders hunched.

"Ianto?" Jack stepped forward, confused by the lack of response.

He stepped around Ianto to stand in front of him and was surprised to see the wide eyed fear as Ianto continued to look over his shoulder, past hm.

"Ianto?" Jack said softly, then turned started to see what he was looking at.

He never saw it coming.

.

.

.

He was aware of light, voices and the sensation of a cold surface as he blinked himself into wakefulness.

"Here's sleeping beauty now!" Owen said as Jack slowly sat up and rolled his head to ease his neck.

"Tosh was sure you were dead" Owen said as he shone a light in his eyes in the most annoying way.

"Ianto?" Jack frowned as he looked around, "Where is he?"

'Hiding deep in the old files area" Owen snorted," Bloody nutta ran off like a cut cat once he'd clocked you one."

"Ianto?" Jack frowned as he struggled to remember. "No. It wasn't him it was … there's something in the corner and he was telling it to go away. I thought he was telling me but …"

"Jack, you just have your head bounced off metal shelving, you're a bit confused. We heard shouting and came down to find you in a pool of blood and him gone" Gen said as she walked down the stairs.

"Ianto" Jack slid off the table and staggered, then got his bearings. That death had been a bitch.

He took off running, back to the last place he saw Ianto and began to call his name.

"Jack, just leave him. There's only one way out, he'll come up when he's hungry." Gwen huffed as she pulled on Jack's arm.

"You don't understand!" Jack growled as he shook her off, "Something was there. With me and Ianto, something was stalking us."

Jack called Ianto's name again, desperation sliding into the tone.

Gwen stood with her arms folded and rolled her eyes as Owen joined in, calling out as he tried to peer between artefacts.

"Maybe he's behind the wall shelving, he's skinny enough to fit" Owen muttered.

Tosh's scream from the main hub had them forgetting all about Ianto as they ran to investigate.

The shuffling behind them unheard.


	5. Chapter 5

5

Tosh was against the wall of the main hub, her hands in front of her as she gasped for breath.

Jack flew into the middle of the hub and swung around, finding her and rushing over to hold her as she wept into his chest.

"Fuck!" Owen swore as he saw the torn clothing and scratches to her arms.

"Defensive wounds" Gwen pointed out as he moved to her workstation and withdrew her gun.

Ianto had followed them and came through the entranceway to the archives to find Gwen waiting with her gun drawn as she snarled at him.

"You've bloody done it now!" Owen shouted, "Why Tosh? What did she ever do to you?"

Ianto looked horrified and turned to help Tosh but Gwen stepped forward and levelled the gun in his face, "Don't fucking move!"

Ianto stared at her with a look of confusion, then it slowly morphed into indifference as he leaned back with a soft huff.

"Gwen put the gun away" Jack ordered, "Don't' be so bloody stupid. He followed us up and out, there was no way for him to get past us which clearly shows he didn't do this!"

Gwen blinked, then coloured as she recognised the truth in Jack's words. She lowered the gun as Ianto stepped back into the hallway, intending to leave again

"Please don't go" Jack called out, "Please. What did you see?"

Ianto stepped into the hub and warily past Gwen as he looked over at Jack.

"It was … well, like the shadows were moving. Solid, somehow." Ianto shrugged, "I've been going through the archives trying to find an explanation, been thinking it might be attached to a piece of tech but I've found nothing in there that suggests …"

"Told ya!" Owen snarled as he checked Tosh's arms were not too deeply scratched, "Virgin nerd!"

Tosh pulled back her arm he was examining and slapped him as hard as she could.

"It's OK Tosh" Ianto sighed softly, "He still means me."

Tosh looked down with dismay as Owen gaped at her, the impact of her reaction was a shock to him, as he had never considered her a virgin.

"Owen, you know this is not mass hysteria or everyone else would be suffering, including you!" Ianto pointed out, "I am not insane, looking for attention or self-harming. There is something in the hub trying to hurt me and I think it attacked Tosh to get at me because she is my only friend."

"Tosh isn't your only friend" Jack said as he stepped towards Ianto but Ianto laughed hollowly as he stepped away.

"You hate me. You all hate me, except for Tosh and she just pities me" Ianto snorted, "Look at me. A gawky, ugly nerd. God, at least I have contact lenses now, can you imagine when I had to wear glasses?"

Ianto sighed as he slumped into a chair, "Even Lisa pitied me. I don't think she was really going to marry me. Not exactly a catch, am I!"

"That's not true" Jack said as he knelt and placed a hand on his knee, "You mean something to me. I see you Ianto!"

"Yeah? What do you see? A nerd? A stupid office boy? Or just someone to push about" Ianto said in a dull voice as he rose from the chair, "Me Da always called me a useless piece of shite, guess he was right. You know what I thought in the Tower it all went to hell?" 

"Ianto" Jack said softly as he stepped towards him some more, getting close enough to reach out and touch his arm.

"I thought … gonna die a virgin. Nobody will even miss me" he whispered, looking into Jack's eyes, "Only the thought of finding Lisa spurred me on. I should have just laid down and stayed with my companions. At least they pretended to like me."

Jack slid his hand down and took Ianto's, linking their fingers.

"You are important" Jack said softly as he stepped into Ianto's personal space, their faces close enough for Jack to feel Ianto's soft breath on his cheek.

"Yeah, no one else can sort that bloody mess called the archives!" Owen snorted without looking up to see the unstable, silent argument going on.

It broke the spell and Ianto stepped back, his eyes widening as he swallowed compulsively and Jack kept a tight hold of his hand, stopping him from running again.

"Easy" Jack soothed, rubbing his thumb over Ianto's knuckles, like calming a spooked horse.

"Owen?" Jack said without taking his eyes off Ianto, "If you can't be serious you should bugger off to the autopsy bay and find something to do that does not involve bullying your teammate!"

"Teammate!" Owen scoffed, "He's not part of the bloody team!"

Ianto flinched and tugged at his hand but Jack still wouldn't let go.

"Owen, I will not say it again" Jack snarled, "I will place my boot up your arse if you insist on acting like a spoilt child at finishing school picking on the kid in hand me down clothes!"

Owen straightened up with temper, then deflated.

"Sorry" he muttered, "You know I was never that kid!"

"No. I seem to remember you being the one who stuck up for that kid, once upon a time" Jack turned to finally look at him, "Pity you lost the ability to care."

Owen looked at his feet and Jack refocused on Ianto.

"Tell me more about this … thing."

"I don't know. A Djinn? A spirit? A Poltergeist? An alien?" I don't know" Ianto sighed, "All I know is that we are not supposed to look it in the eye, or speak directly to it as it only gives it more power over you."

"Tosh?" Jack asked now he could see that she had calmed down, "What did you see chickadee?"

She smiled softly at the term of endearment, one he had only used a few times before when he had first saved her from Unit.

"I was working at my terminal, looking for Ianto through the CCTV" she explained, "I felt something beside me and thought it was Gwen so I turned to ask why she was back when it … I mean, something black like wet material or …"

"Smoke. Thick smoke" Ianto muttered.

"Yes! Thick black smoke, like moving tar. It seemed to rush at me and I threw my arms up as it hit me. It was like a thresher machine or something. I heard this … whooshing noise." Tosh frowned.

"What else?" Jack prompted.

"It smelt." She looked to Ianto who grimaced.

"Like spoilt meat" he agreed.

"Yes, rotten!"


	6. Chapter 6

6

Owen accepted the cup of coffee with an apologetic nod as Ianto passed, then sighed as Ianto ignored it.

Owen thought back to his treatment of Ianto and saw the comparison Jack had made, finally agreeing that he was being a bloody bully. One of the things he despised most in the world, and look at him now.

They were all in the meeting room, brightly lit and warm as Ianto slid into his own chair and he hid a wince of pain.

One Jack saw anyway.

"You're hurt?"

"Just bruises from where it threw me" Ianto said softly and everyone froze.

"Threw you?"

Ianto looked at his hands, his fingers wrapped around the coffee cup like they were seeking some regenerating power from the warmth.

"It, it shakes me and sometimes it takes me off my feet as it …." Ianto stopped talking and spun around like someone had touched his shoulder, his face paling even more, which Jack hadn't thought possible.

"Ianto?"

"It's here!" Ianto whimpered, "I can hear it."

"Where?" Jack rose and tried to squint into the area Ianto was staring at.

"Listen" Ianto hissed.

Jack stepped slowly towards Ianto and then he heard it.

Breathing.

His hands shook as he reached for Ianto, looking into the dead space.

Jack steadied himself and lowered his psychic shields, something he hated doing but the sight of Ianto's shaking was too much.

His scream galvanised the whole team.

Ianto rushed forward, taking Jack down and under the table to cover him with his own body.

Owen rushed towards them, falling to his knees.

Tosh shot backwards and slammed into the window wall.

Gwen fired into the area Jack had been staring at.

The sound of something screaming, metallic like the Jurassic Park T-Rex filled the space and then there was a rush of air as the glass wall shattered, raining shard of glass over Tosh and Gwen.

Myfanwy's scream of anger filled the hub and she could be heard above them as she exited her nest.

Jack was convulsing under the table and Ianto felt his own sanity slip as his empathic shielding fell.

Owen swore as Ianto's eyes rolled back, collapsing on top of the captain and he began to crawl under the table to reach them.

Gwen crawled towards Tosh and took her into her arms as they both cried with the stress of the moment, each woman checking the other and finding only scratches.

Ianto took a deep breath and then went still.

Jack blinked and looked over at Owen with a look of confusion.

"Ianto?" Owen called out, still reaching for him.

Ianto screamed, a bloodcurdling scream that had Jack rolling them both out from under the table towards Owen.

Ianto's eyes flew open as he grabbed for Jack, taking strength from a shared shielding and Jack gasped as he felt Ianto's shields meld with his own.

"Easy, easy" worked for horses, right? Jack gently rubbed Ianto's back as he pulled them both into a sitting position, keeping a tight hold of him.

"Ianto? Can you look at me?" Owen said as he examined his eyes.

"I'm ok, I'll be alright, it's gone, its ok now" Ianto seemed to be reassuring himself as much as he was talking to Owen and Jack dragged him to his feet, enveloping him on his warm embrace.

Ianto sighed as he laid his head against Jack's neck and shuddered, "I'm so tired Sir."

"Come on" Jack said as he started to walk them towards the office.

"Oi! I'm not done here" Owen snarked.

"Then see to the girls, they got glass all over them like a bloody glass shower" Jack called over his shoulder, wanting to get Ianto away from the questions brewing within the team.

He had some of his own.


	7. Chapter 7

7

Jack helped Ianto down the ladder, into his sleeping quarters and noted the shaking hands that still clutched at him, seeking the shielding.

"How did you know to do that?" Jack asked softly, hugging him on the edge of the bed. "Gods, my legs are like jelly."

"What flavour?" came the absent reply that made Jack snort involuntarily.

"Have you ever …"Ianto looked around then directly into Jack's eyes.

"Out the corner of your eye, like something moving across your peripheral vision" Ianto whispered as he leaned into Jack's ear, "They are there. Like the scarecrow character from Batman, ya know? Pale white faces and black voids for eyes. They just look at you, watch you."

He pulled back and Jack pulled him close again, trying to comfort him a little longer. Seeking comfort from what had been a horrible death. The bloody thing had torn his mind to pieces.

"They are the silence."

Jack frowned as he stared at the concrete wall, trying to remember where he had heard that before.

"Ianto, why do they want you?"

"I don't know" Ianto whimpered, giving in to the hug and rubbing his face into Jack's neck, just by his ear.

"It's OK" Jack soothed, pulling Ianto back onto the bed and sitting up to remove his shoes.

"I read it somewhere, maybe knowing it, knowing they exist is enough to get their attention" Ianto whispered, his fingers stroking Jack's back.

It seemed so simple, so natural to turn after the last shoe hit the floor and kiss him.

Like they had done it a thousand times, not for the first time down here in the candlelight.

Lips against lips, eyes closed and heads canting to complement each other.

Jack tasted like peppermint and dark chocolate.

Ianto tasted like coffee and ginger.

Both men moaned and grabbed at each other as the sexual tension finally found a release and Jack was on top of Ianto, kissing him deeply, passionately as his hands slid along his flanks.

"Jack" Ianto sighed as he let his head roll to one side, allowing Jack's lips to find his neck.

Jack slid a hand inside the shirt, pulling it up and then Jack slid down to lick at the taught stomach.

Ianto was whimpering, his hands in Jack's hair and Jack surged back up the bed, recapturing those lips that tasted so damn fine.

Jack tried to be kind, tried to be compassionate but the need to claim this enigma was stretching his patience to the limit.

"Please" a whisper encouraged Jack's fingers that had been rubbing gentle circles on Ianto's hard dick and Jack grinned as he undid the trousers on the panting Welshman and slid his hand inside to cup the wonderfully large erection.

"Oh darling, you have been hiding yourself under a bushel" Jack murmured as Ianto bucked against him.

Ianto whimpered and his eyes rolled into the back of his head as Jack thumbed the helmet of his hard-on, feeling the pre-cum and smearing it around.

Jack pulled at the trousers, freeing the wanton hard-on some more and looking down as it sprang to attention.

"Oh gods, you are a wonder" Jack breathed as he looked back up at the handsome Welshman in his grasp.

Jack shuffled up and shucked off his trousers as he went, eager to complete the act, not wanting Ianto to take a moment to hesitate or refuse.

Jack didn't have time for niceties now, didn't have time to remove their shirts either, just time to take a deep breath before he impaled himself on the wonderfully wide and long erection that seemed to have been made for him.

Jack knew he was making noises as he ground down but he couldn't stop, the need to feel as much of Ianto inside him as possible urging him to rise slightly, then slam down.

Bone to bone.

Ianto's eyes snapped open and he grabbed at Jack's hips as he bucked again, forcing them both up off the cot.

Jack barked as Ianto hit that sweet spot and Ianto growled, low and lovely.

Again.

Again.

 _Gods, yes._

Jack looked down and reached a hand, cupping his cheek as he grinned down at him, "Cum for me darling."

Ianto shuddered almost instantly, and filled Jack whilst throwing his head back in ecstasy.

Jack was so entranced that his own orgasm took him by surprise and he shot his load over Ianto's shirt.

As they lay in the afterglow, Jack rolled to kiss Ianto. Wanting to reassure him that it was all OK.

Ianto clutched at him and Jack was surprised to taste tears in the kiss.

"You OK darling?" Jack said softly.

"You keep calling me that" Ianto said as another tear rolled down his face, "What do you keep calling me that?"

"Oh Ianto" Jack sighed as he pulled him close, "You have no idea how lovely you are, do you."

Ianto's frown told Jack all he needed to know.

This beautiful man had no idea what Jack could see.

His next mate.


	8. Chapter 8

8

"I need you to think carefully about where you heard or read about … you know what" Jack said as Ianto tied his tie in the mirror.

"Jack, I …" Ianto shrugged.

"Don't force it just to please me" Jack said quickly, cutting him off.

"I need coffee" Ianto sighed and Jack grinned as he nodded enthusiastically.

They re-entered the hub and found Tosh working through CCTV footage of her attack. On the screen was a frame by frame breakdown showing her skin part in long furrows and even her sleeve tearing and a piece fluttering to the ground.

"You're looking at it wrong" Ianto said as he studied it.

"How?" Owen turned and ran his eyes over the immaculate suit.

"Look away and look back quick while blinking" Ianto said, "Like this."

He turned his head and began fluttering his eyes and quickly rolled his head past the picture. He blanched and shuddered.

Owen frowned, then tried.

"Fuck" he stepped back and looked over at Tosh who was repeating the same motion.

Gwen was ignoring them as she reloaded her gun, "Whatever the hell it was I injured it. That noise was pain."

"It's more than one though" Ianto shattered her hopes, "Sometimes they are in pairs sometimes three. Seldom just one."

"No shit" Owen frowned as he placed his nose on the screen and blinked furiously, "Oh yeah. Just in the corner of the screen, another arm."

"Why you though" Owen repeated his favourite saying and Ianto tensed as he waited for the attack.

"Leave him alone!" Jack growled as he walked up behind them, "Ianto is out of bounds as of now!"

Owen turned and looked at Jack, then sneered as he saw Jack's flush.

Tosh squeaked and Gwen looked up in time to see Ianto running from the archives on screen, a long shadow following him.

"Wow, they do like you, don't they" Owen frowned. "That makes three."

Ianto went into the kitchen and withdrew a phone from a tin by the tea bags. He chose a number.

"Aunty? You busy?"

He started to grind beans.

"Yeah, coffee time"

He started the soothing ritual of coffee.

"They're here."

He stopped a spoon of sugar halfway to Gwen's cup and sighed.

"No! I didn't. I guess they piggybacked or something."

The sugar went in the cup.

"Look, it's not my fault and I can usually deal with them, you know I can but they're latched onto a workmate. A lovely girl who …."

A snort and eye roll.

"No! She is not my type… She is single … but I love her as a little sister … please stop trying to mate me off! Just because you want a nice wedding to wear a bloody hat to, it doesn't mean we all need …."

Ianto leaned against the counter.

"It has happened though."

Ianto blushed and giggled softly.

"Yeah. NO, this is the crazy bit. I chose a man! Yeah, I never knew I felt … wow … he just blew my very mind."

Ianto paused again and grinned, sheepishly.

"Yeah. It is him as a matter of fact, you knew? You bloody knew I would chose him?"

Ianto frowned now and then huffed as he poured the milk.

I know you warned me about him, I think …"

"He won't hurt me. You don't know him like I do. You just listen to the rumours too much!"

Ianto suddenly reared back and slammed shut the phone with a look of thunder, then resumed making the coffee.

From the vantage point where Jack was watching, he could hear him mutter, "You don't know him, and he won't betray me. He will forgive me!"

Jack wondered what he was about to forgive.


	9. Chapter 9

9

Ianto resurfaced with coffees to find Owen waiting with the girls.

"We've found four of them within the hub, see?" Owen informed them thumbing over his shoulder at pictures showing smudges.

"We thought it was one but then we checked the timecodes and realised these were taken about the same time." Tosh said as she swung in her chair.

"God, it reminds me of the ghost shifts." Ianto whispered, "Those bloody things."

"Yeah" Jack sighed as he arrived and Ianto wondered where he had been "Except these things are more bloody organised."

"I remember where I know them from, I read it on a screen. A background archive check being performed and the file pinged my attention, so I pulled it from the data stream" Ianto said as he looked at the picture of a smudge behind Tosh.

"At T1?" Jack asked.

"No" Ianto said shortly, leaving no confusion that he wasn't about to say.

"No more secrets" Jack warned, "Please don't lie to me or omit something important."

Ianto sighed and turned to face Jack fully, mirroring his body stance.

Owen was reminded of the Wild West Gunslingers and he had a silly notion of yelling 'draw.'

"On the Tardis"

Jack blinked, frowned and then laughed. A deep braying laugh, full of sarcasm.

"Right, you've been on the blue lady" Jack shook his head.

"She prefers sexy" Ianto deadpanned, "But you know that, you've spent time with the Doctor as well."

The team had gone quiet as they comprehended the argument/discussion and Ianto grinned at Jack, transforming from an upper crust butler to a handsome young man.

"Ianto?"

"It was just a short trip, I didn't spend much time on her at all. I wanted to talk to him, to ask him for help but I was too caught up in the terror of free flight.' Ianto smiled again and Jack melted.

"So? Where did he take you?"

"Um, about two days into the future and then … here I am."

"And while on board the Tardis you read about the Silence?" Jack asked.

"Yes, seems they are a bit like tricksters, they like to meddle" Ianto frowned as he tried to remember, "Like a cloaking device. They are everywhere, unseen. Hidden."

"So they use technology?" Tosh leaned forward.

"No, more like a form of telepathy, they tell you that you are seeing things." Ianto answered, "Like hypnosis."

Myfanwy swooped overhead and let out a roar, causing Ianto to look up.

"Oh my god" on the catwalk, stood two of the creatures.

Jack fired, one fell as the other winked away.

They ran to examine it and shuddered as it seemed to melt into the grating like smoke dissipating.

"Sound" Ianto said, "Sound caused us to refocus. It broke the mind control."

"Well, she is a bit of a noisy cow" Owen snorted.

"I have an idea" Tosh ran for her terminal, "Sound bursts, alternating irritating sounds at irregular intervals, without pattern. It may give us a headache but it should keep jarring us awake."

Good girl" Jack said as he gave Ianto a soft hug.

"Sir?" Ianto said softly.

"Yes Ianto?" Jack crooned.

"I'm hungry"

"Pizza!" Jack demanded with glee and Ianto reached for his phone then hesitated.

"Jubilee?"

"The other place delivers too" Jack said kindly, "I like their garlic bread a well.'

Ianto gave a grateful smile.

As they waited, Jack turned to Ianto again.

"So when did you travel with the Doctor?"

"Oh, um …." Ianto squirmed, "At Canary Warf. How do you think I got Lisa out?"


	10. Chapter 10

10

Jack had been silent since Ianto's admission that he had smuggled Lisa onto the Tardis for a short trip.

Ianto had admitted that the Doctor never found him and for some reason, the Tardis didn't alert him to their presence.

The thought that the Doctor hadn't known what was aboard, like a fucking hitchhiker kept chewing away at Jack.

The one man Jack would never dare to con, conned by his own archivist. Jack wasn't sure if he was impressed by the admission or sickened.

The pizza had arrived and to Ianto's surprise, Jack rushed him to the SUV and told him he was going home.

Ianto sighed as the pizzas went down with Gwen, realising that he was not going to eat any with them.

Again.

They got to his house and Jack sat, idling the SUV.

Ianto stared at him with confusion, then at the darkness outside.

When he realised Jack was not going to escort him to the house he sighed and pulled his coat tighter, then took a dep breath as he prepared to make a break for it.

"Goodnight Jack" Ianto said softly as he reached for the door handle.

"Let's not get carried away here" Jack said stiltedly, "I was just giving you a pass, if your virginity was what they were after."

Ianto blinked, "But I thought, I mean … I felt …"

"It was good, for a first attempt" Jack said unkindly and Ianto frowned.

"This is about HIM isn't it" Ianto demanded, "You're angry that I was on the Tardis!"

"Just get some rest" Jack sighed as he felt his energy depleting, "I'll come for you in the morning."

"I can assure you of one thing, Sir!" Ianto growled as he slid to the edge of the seat, "You will not CUM for me again!"

Ianto threw open the door and ran.

Jack turned to speak and watched as Ianto slammed into the door and flew back, then opened it and frantically hurried inside.

 _Shit. The dark._

Jack swore and slammed his head against the steering wheel as he berated himself for being so cruel and he turned off the SUV.

He knocked.

The lock thing happened and then the eyeball again.

"I'm sorry" Jack said.

"Right-o" Ianto slammed the door and Jack waited for it to open only to find that it was not going to happen.

Jack huffed and knocked again. Finally the door swung open and a hand shot out, pulling him into the house.

Jack stood watching Ianto employ the locks, then straighten up to glare at him.

Jack looked around and felt his world go sideways.

Halogens lit up every corner of the house, not even a single shadow was visible, not even his. No ornaments, nothing that might throw a shadow. Just stark surfaces.

"Jesus, this must be hell on the 'lecky bill!" Jack quipped.

"Steal it from the factory over the back" Ianto said blandly.

Jack chose a seat in a pristinely white sofa and looked at the white, white surfaces.

"What the hell was all that out there?" Ianto suddenly demanded, "You wanted to take my cherry and now I'm surplus to requirements?"

"No, no" Jack stammered, "I just … oh my god."

Jack rose and walked over to the wall, reaching out to feel it.

"Fur. They don't like sliding along it, they do that you know. Slid along walls and around corners."

Jack looked at the doorway and saw sandpaper carefully stapled to it.

"Yeah, they don't like that either" Ianto said softly.

"I panicked." Jack said, swinging to look to him. "The Doctor? The Tardis? This ... this …us. Intense. All so much to take in."

"I was rubbish, right" Ianto pouted.

"No, Jesus, you were spectacular" Jack laughed, "I want to fuck you right here on this extremely clean couch!"

"So?" Ianto frowned, "Why did you do that? Spoil it?"

"Shit … I said, I panicked!" Jack threw his arms out.

"No, not us. The team. Why can't I eat a meal with them, sit with them like I matter! You had me out of there so fast I didn't even get a slice to bring home! Just because I hardly eat, it doesn't mean I don't like bloody company!" Ianto was yelling now, "I'm a shit lay, apparently, I'm not part of the team because you didn't want me there with them and to top it all off, you make me do that run for safety."

"I … damn it I forgot. You said that about the Tardis. I had just shagged you and then …I mean… you reminded me about Lisa and I felt so bloody stupid for taking advantage." Jack tried to explain, "I am a death sentence, no Torchwood agent I ever shagged had live to an old age!"

"So I'm just a shag then" Ianto snorted.

"Stop twisting things, being so bloody pig-headed!" Jack roared, "If I didn't love you I would have walked out already!"

"You love me?"


	11. Chapter 11

11

"What do you mean, you don't eat" Jack asked.

"No, don't change the subject!" Ianto stepped closer to him, "You don't drop a bombshell like that and then rescind to an earlier comment!"

"Ianto!" Jack warned but Ianto was already advancing.

"You can't just do that! It might only be words for you but … I … you bastard!" Ianto turned away and Jack realised he was crying.

"Ianto, I did mean it, they are not just words to me" Jack tried to catch his arm but Ianto resisted, slamming back against the wall.

"How can you! You yourself pointed out that you don't even fucking know me! How can you possibly love me!" Ianto was shouting, his face distorted with rage. "You don't even trust me!"

"Is that what she said? While she was manipulating you? Controlling you?" Jack twigged.

Ianto deflated and leaned back against the fur as he sniffed, feeling utterly stupid with himself and the whole thing in general.

"I wish …." Ianto sighed, then looked away.

"What!" Jack asked softly, "What do you wish?"

"That there was enough retcon in the world to wipe everything away" Ianto growled as he pushed off the wall and left the room.

Jack followed him into a sparse kitchenette that had a kettle sitting in the middle of the table with three different lights on it to cancel the shadows.

Ianto opened a cupboard and retrieved two mugs plus a basket that looked to contain coffee makings.

Jack pulled out a white chair and sat, waiting now.

 _No need to rush this._

Once coffee was made and Ianto had moved everything until the shadows were not an issue, he sat and looked at Jack over the cup.

"Mad, aren't I" he muttered as he blew on the liquid within.

"No. I felt it. In the gun range, I felt … something touching me, brushing against my coat and I know it wasn't Owen." Jack assured him, "Even before Tosh caught them on CCTV, I believed you."

Ianto seemed to deflate and smiled weakly.

"Ianto, I want to help. You have to let me in."

Jack reached for his hand and was saddened to see it pulled back, then realised he was casting a shadow. He placed the arm on the table and waited. He was rewarded when a hesitant hand was slid into his palm.

"When the cannibals happened, I thought … I thought, at least this is the end." Ianto looked up, "In that cellar, so far from here. They couldn't find me and I thought, if I must die, at least it's not by them."

Jack squeezed the hand in his and took a deep breath.

"You were brave, you saved Tosh and risked it all to give me time to do my superhero charge" Jack said softly.

"Yes, you and heavy machinery. Good to know" Ianto smiled softly, looking down but Jack caught it.

"Cheeky!" Jack grinned, "I'll have you know, these hands can be put to a myriad of things!"

"A Myriad?" Ianto said with wide eyes as he punctuated the words with his lovely vowels.

"Yeah, a plethora, no less!" Jack teased.

He was rewarded with that being repeated as well, Ianto's twinkling gaze telling him that he knew what it was doing to him and he was forgiven.

"Let's start again" Jack leaned back, "Hi. Captain Jack Harkness. Interstellar Lothario, ex-conman, ex-companion of the Doctor, wonderfully giving lover, former Time Agent, not of this world first class twat!"

Ianto giggled.

"Hello. Jones, Ianto Jones. Welsh rabbit scared of his own shadow … literally, former momentary companion without the Doctor's knowledge, former virgin, thanks for that by the way, former Archives Assistant of T1, currently the T3 joke and the fool who seems to be falling for your tricks even when they are so blatant."

"Well, Hello" Jack purred exaggeratedly and Ianto laughed softly.

"You are a one, aren't you!" Ianto giggled.

"What does that mean?" Jack asked, "I've been called that before."

"Unique. Likable, a loveable rogue, a card." Ianto shrugged.

"Lovable?"

"Don't make me say it" Ianto's smiled slid away, "They might be listening and I …. I don't want to lose you ... I …"

"I'm not going anywhere" Jack told him firmly, "Not even of you ask nicely."

"Good" Ianto looked away, flustered by the sincerity in Jack's face, "Good then, well. Yes. Good."

Jack held on and tried to send calm thoughts as he felt the shielding waiver. _It'll be OK._

Ianto's head whipped around and he stared at Jack. Hard.

"Oh yeah." Ianto whispered, "And I can hear you."


	12. Chapter 12

12

Jack sat staring at Ianto until Ianto blushed and looked away.

"When I hid with Lisa, on the Tardis" Ianto started, then stalled out and sighed.

"Tell me" Jack prompted.

"It was under some grating, there was this lovely golden glow and it seemed to be so warm and kind and … why are you looking at me like that?" Ianto asked as he watched Jack pale.

"Under the grating, you mean under the floor of the flight deck?" Jack whispered, his grip on Ianto now quite strong.

"Yes, next to the console thingy. She didn't seem to mind, even lifted the grate for me to drop Lisa in" Ianto pulled at his hand, fear starting.

"The heart of the Tardis, you saw the heart of the Tardis" Jack whispered.

"Only some tendrils of gold and some …. Oh. Is that bad?" Ianto was now tugging as he looked for an exit.

"No, no, baby. No, I don't mean to scare you" Jack assured him, "It's just, well she is a powerful thing, the Tardis."

"Don't I know it? Her bloody translation unit took a liking to me as well, not only can I understand any language spoken or written, I can hear things. Snippets, like whispers but with you, it's so strong."

"That's because of the time I spent on the Tardis, I guess." Jack shrugged, "She always did like me. Maybe it connected us on a deeper level."

"Hmmmm" Ianto's eyelids started to droop as he fought fatigue and Jack felt like a first class heel for keeping him up when he was exhausted.

"Would you like me to stay? Just until you're asleep?" Jack watched Ianto's face carefully as he spoke, hoping for a positive response.

"Could you … um … stay?" Ianto looked imploringly at him, "They don't attack when there is someone else with me. Not when I sleep."

"So, they only go for you when you are on your own?" Jack leaned back as he considered. It made sense, Tosh was alone when she was attacked as well.

"You don't 'ave to," Ianto stammered, taking Jack's silence for a negative response.

"Hey, I would love to stay and if you don't mind, I'm so tired I might stay over for the night" Jack said as sincerely as he could and he kept the leer at bay, "A nice cuddle and snooze might do us both a world of good."

Ianto's face lit up and Jack was again taken with his beauty, knowing he had made the right decision as Ianto nodded enthusiastically.

"I'll … I'll show you to the …er, facilities and such" Ianto was flushed.

"Best we stay together, I'll hit the head while you get ready and then we switch, that way we're in the same room" Jack was getting the hang of this and was rewarded with another small smile of relief.

The bathroom was also stark, but the large cupboards swung out to reveal a much organised cabinet, including spare toothbrush.

"I always keep a spare, in case Rhia needs me to take the kids" Ianto explained, then stalled out again.

"Rhia?"

"Rhiannon, my big sister. She has two kids" Ianto turned and looked at Jack with worry, "They're not in my file. Not to trick you, I just … I thought I might fail and didn't want them to become collateral damage in the clean-up."

"How often do you have them?" Jack changed the subject.

"Er, once a month or so, usually a weekend or public holiday" Ianto took the carrot with a look of gratitude, "Not so much since … well. She's a bit miffed with me for being so distant, but I've been kinda busy with …. Other visitors the last few months."

"So this isn't constant, more like a coming and going?"

"Yeah, I can go months even years being unharmed but then they seem to get stirred up again and come to poke and prod" Ianto laughed softly, "I used to think, when I was a kid like, that I was being abducted by Aliens because I would wake up with marks on me like needle marks and sometimes even stitches like they had operated."

Jack looked at Ianto and felt a slow boil coming on at the thought of his entire life being fraught with such deception, the need to lie so strongly.

"There was another, once. In the next room. A girl, with red hair and a sassy constitution. She was pregnant and they wanted the baby. Apparently it was important to them" Ianto struggled to think of the name.

"Another abductee?" Jack was tuned in, "Another victim?"

"Pond? She was in the next room to me, strapped down, it might have been a dream, and this might all be a dream but Emily? Amy? Amy Pond? Something like that, she seemed too real" Ianto sighed. "Told me her daughter would be called Melody. Pretty eh? Melody Pond. Silly the things we dream."

Jack ran a hand through his hair as he settled in the crisp white linen and watched Ianto nervously change with his back to him, unaware that the sight of that bum was so very nice.

PJs spoiled it but Jack smiled as he remembered the feel of those taught buns in his hands.

"Goodnight Sir" Ianto whispered into the brightly lit room.

Jack huffed, then pulled Ianto into his arms, kissing his forehead and settling with an arm protectively thrown over him.

As Ianto drifted off Jack tried to think of why that name meant something.

Melody Pond.

Why was that tickling at his memory?

Something from the Time Agency?

Weird.


	13. Chapter 13

13

They walked into the hub and Owen shouted across at the girls, "See? I bloody well told ya they were shaggin'!"

Ianto went bright red and raced for the kitchen as Jack advanced on Owen.

"You listen here" Jack snarled as he reached out and snagged Owen's collar, "You leave him the fuck alone or you answer to me. I don't ask for much as your boss, but this? Not negotiable."

Jack's face was close enough for Owen to smell the coffee he had drunk at Ianto's while enjoying a breakfast Ianto didn't join him in eating.

His lips peeled back and Owen saw a side of his Captain he had only previously seen being forced on others.

He decided that he didn't like it.

Owen squeaked and wind-milled as he was pushed away, landing in his swivel chair which then rolled back a few feet while he gaped at Jack.

"He means something to me!" Jack declared loudly and Ianto almost dropped the tray of coffees as he wandered towards them. "I will not have him belittled because of my feelings for him!"

With a bright red face, Ianto delivered their beverages and Owen mutely accepted his.

"Thank you Ianto" Jack smiled as the striped mug was presented. "Where's yours?"

"Well, I actually got some sleep last night, thank you for watching over me, and I feel good enough without. By lunchtime I'll be gasping though! Good incentive to remember to eat" Ianto grinned as he reached out and absently flicked a bit of fluff from Jack's right brace as it sat on his shoulder, then let his hand rest for a moment.

"I'm glad you slept" Jack said back into those grey storms, "You were exhausted. You're not alone now."

Ianto hummed as he turned and then hesitated, looking up.

Everyone followed his gaze and then looked at each other with confusion.

"Anyone hear from Myfanwy today?"

"Who?" Tosh asked softly.

"Myfanwy. You know?" Ianto cocked his head adorably and flapped his arms, "Flap, flap?"

Everyone looked at him with mute confusion.

My Pteranodon!" Ianto exclaimed.

"The pterodactyl?" Gwen gaped, "You called the dinosaur that?"

"She is not a dinosaur, she is a Pteranodon, Gwen!" Ianto chastised with a frown, "She is lovely, she should have a lovely name. A fine lady!"

"How the fuck do you know it's a girl? Go to night classes to learn how to sex dinos did ya?" Owen snarked, already forgetting how close Jack was standing.

Ianto rolled his eyes towards Jack who gave a look of realisation, then grinned.

"I told him" Jack said, straightening up as Owen flinched, "Come on, work, work, work my wee minions!"

"I think I resent that" Owen muttered as he stomped off.

"Thank you" Ianto whispered as he passed Jack, letting their hands brush against each other briefly.

Jack watched him head for the ladder to her nest, knowing he must be able to hear her sometimes. He grinned as he thought about how they met, how Ianto tricked him that first time with the find of a lifetime.

Cheeky beggar could communicate with her all along.

Then he remembered that roll across the floor and realised that it had not been an accident either.

Or supposed to be what it turned into, given Ianto's stunned look.

Well, well, well.

Jack was strangely touched.

Ianto had gone through all that trouble to gain a foot in the door, wound up with a groping and still managed to look good in a suit.

As he pondered all of this, Ianto called out from the top of the ladder.

"She's not in here … oh … wait, near the back … I…. Myf?"

The screech as she barrelled out of the nest like a bullet made everyone jump, Ianto cry out and his hands slip.

Jack cried out with horror as Ianto fell, plummeting towards the grated floor of the hub with a look of confusion on his face.

Jack ran, hoping to cushion his fall, whatever the cost to himself, he would survive.

Please Gods, let Ianto survive too.


	14. Chapter 14

14

As Ianto fell, he twisted and seemed to struggle.

His face changed to one of anger and his scream echoed as he fought…something.

Jack got it.

Oh Gods, he got it, something had Ianto and a larger fight was going on than was visible.

Jack ran, swinging his cup up as he surged forward and its coffee arched up over Ianto and … a figure that had him by the throat.

Gwen screamed and started to back pedal as Tosh gripped her workstation with horror.

Owen threw the ash he had been carrying up to containment from an incinerated beast, watching it rain over them both.

As the two figures hit the grating Jack threw himself on top and tried to insinuate himself between them.

It was obvious which one Ianto was as his brogues were still shining as they kicked out.

Owen grabbed for them and pulled, putting his whole body weight into it and Gwen finally stopped retreating to watch.

Jack and the creature were now in some sort of death roll as they careened across the hub and Ianto lay gasping in Owen's arms.

"What the fuck, shoot the fucker!" Owen roared and Gwen raised her weapon, firing off a few shots as she advanced on them both.

She knew Jack would survive friendly fire and now she could see the thing she knew she had been foolish in her denials.

The thing shrieked again, this time they were not phased and Tosh surged forward with a well-placed kick of her pointed toe, sinking her shoe into the 'face' of the thing.

Owen let go of Ianto and leapt, landing on the two men and punched at it as a dark green oily substance wept from it.

The team worked frantically to extract Jack, Ianto staggering over to slam down the discarded coffee cup into its head as he roared with pent up rage and fear for his new lover.

It shuddered and stilled, releasing its grip on Jack and they pulled him to his feet.

Ianto was sobbing, almost hysterical as he ran his hands over Jack while repeating his name over and over again like a calming mantra.

Jack pulled him into his arms and tried to soothe him as he regained his own equilibrium.

"Oh Jack, my love" Ianto wailed, finally collapsing into him as he accepted that he was OK.

"It's OK baby, don't cry. I'm OK" Jack crooned as he rubbed his back and Ianto slowly wound down.

Owen was standing to one side with a look of complete confusion as he watched the thing they had just killed slowly melt away.

"Ianto?" Tosh's voice was soft and full of emotion as she reached out to touch him and he turned to face her, his face still wet as tears made small streaks in the ash.

"Are you OK?" he asked shakily and she laughed.

"Ianto, you almost died and you ask about me?" she smiled as she moved in to rub his shoulder.

"You are important, I would never forgive myself if one of the team were hurt because of my demons, oh god, Owen!" Ianto spun to grab him, looking into his face and checking for injury.

"I'm OK Yan" Owen said meekly as he accepted an ashy hug, then Ianto retuned to Jack's arms.

"I think we all need a fucking drink!" Owen walked stiltedly to Jack's office and returned with a bottle of whiskey from Jack's stash.

"I think we need more mugs" Ianto whispered as he looked at the carnage and Jack laughed as he pulled him onto a hug again, relieved that he was coming back on-line.

"Gwen? You OK?" Ianto turned his head to look at her and she nodded while biting her bottom lip.

"It's OK. I don't blame you, I don't hate you either. I know you were scared by the Mara and wished this not to be true." Ianto sighed as he shook his head, "I am sorry."

She blinked as it seemed like he knew what she was thinking, then she took a shuddering breath and replied, "I am sorry too."

"Do over?" Ianto said with a weak smile, his hand held out, and palm up.

"Thank you" she sighed, accepting it and taking another deep breath. "Right, what now?"

"Now? I need a shower!" Ianto moaned, "Look at my suit!"

"Sorry babe, it was a lovely one. Dry leaning will fix it, right?" Jack asked as he looked doubtfully at the dark blue suit that was now different shades of grey.

"I. Will. Never" Ianto said angrily, "Wear. This. Suit. Again!"

"Well, I guess its au naturel then babe" Jack winked, "We can make it casual Friday and clothes optional?"

Ianto blinked and then started to laugh, shakily at first but he gained momentum until they were all laughing.

"I think I have a track suit from my night shift sleep overs Sir, but thanks for the offer" Ianto hiccupped.

"Oh well, I might still do it" Jack winked, "I just won't warn any of you when!"

Ianto's laugher sounded again and Jack decided he had never heard anything more comforting.


	15. Chapter 15

15

The water beat a tattoo against his skin and Ianto sighed with delight at the strength of the water. He liked a good, hard shower, none of that soft rain shit, not for him.

Jack stood outside the stall, unseen by Ianto who had his eyes shut, and took a moment to look at the livid scratches and bruising already blooming on the alabaster skin of his lover.

"Ianto?" he spoke softly, but still made Ianto squeak with fear before grinning sheepishly.

"I want Owen to check you over" Jack said then held up his hand as Ianto started to protest, "I know, I know but for me. I would feel a lot calmer if I have concrete confirmation that that fucking thing didn't cause you harm."

"OK" Ianto grunted as he looked past Jack at the towel on the bench.

"No you don't" Jack huffed, "We're all about conservation here!"

"Huh?" Ianto frowned with confusion, then watched as Jack shrugged off his clothes and dumped them with Ianto's.

Ianto watched the small ash cloud from the clothes and frowned as he thought about the clean-up still waiting back in the hub.

All thoughts went out the window as Jack stepped into his eye line.

"Wow" Ianto said softly and Jack grinned as he had the desired effect.

"Room for little old me?" Jack asked innocently.

"Sir, you may be the oldest letch that ever lived but I would never call you little!" Ianto snorted.

"You cheeky brat" Jack growled as he slid his hands around Ianto's waist and pulled him back against him, plastering himself against Ianto's back.

"Oh Cariad" Ianto sighed, his eyes fluttering shut as Jack reached down and palmed the already growing erection.

"This for me?" Jack breathed in his ear and Ianto huffed softly as he nodded, not able to speak.

Jack tugged at him gently, keeping up a steady rhythm as Ianto writhed against him, forcing him back against the wall.

Ianto grunted through his release and was still shaking as he struggled to voice his apologies at being greedy when he felt the hot splashes of cum hitting his butt cheeks as Jack bucked against him, his dick sliding between Ianto's legs and rubbing against his balls from behind in such a way that Ianto was crying out with a second release.

"Fuck!" Jack barked as he finally found breath.

"You can say that again!" Owen growled from the bench as he struggled to look away from the wanton display of sex.

"Sorry Owen, I don't share this one" Jack gasped, still holding Ianto tightly as their heartbeats seemed to synchronise.

"That's OK, I was gonna have that cubicle after you but I think I'll take its neighbour!" Owen said haughtily.

"Sorry Owen, he is a dangerous letch" Ianto laughed and Owen grinned back.

"That's OK Yan, I can see he has you … er … well in hand!" Owen said as he fumbled with the water in the next cubicle.

Jack turned Ianto and kissed him revelling in the fact that he hadn't rushed away with shame.

"No shame here, not with you" Ianto whispered, his fingers tracing Jack's lips.

"Ianto, you are doing such things to my emotions" Jack said softly, "I've not felt this vulnerable in a long time."

"Let's just take it one step at a time and remember to forgive any missteps. This is new to both of us" Ianto agreed.

"Gods, you look so cute with your hair wet, it's curly!" Jack crowed as he noticed the normally carefully coiffed hair was fluffing up in the steam.

"Yeah, horrible isn't it" Ianto huffed, reaching up to smooth it down but Jack caught his hands.

"I like it, you look … dangerous. Like you just come in from the surf where you were spear fishing and are in need a strong drink before going off to kill a wild beast for the fire." Jack leered as Ianto grinned back with glee.

"Dangerous?" Ianto raised an eyebrow.

"Definitely. You look like a jet fighter pilot, or a sky diver, or maybe a dirt bike rider or …" Jack teased.

"Well, I would settle for my age!" Ianto huffed, his humour showing.

"No, you will always look young and handsome! Even when your hair is grey, you will be a handsome man Ianto Jones!" Jack said with sincerity.

"Listen to you" Ianto blushed, "Peter Pan himself!"

"Ianto …" Jack began then stopped talking as he watched Ianto's eyes rolling back in his head.


	16. Chapter 16

16

"Jack, if you don't calm the fuck down I'll sedate you!" Owen snarked as Jack paced around the table.

"JACK!"

Jack sat, laying a hand on the unconscious Welshman, still wet from the shower.

When the men had come pounding in, wet and naked, the girls had thought it a joke and were about to argue when they saw Ianto's head lolling as he lay like a rag doll in Jack's arms.

"He's stable" Owen declared as he adjusted the robe he was now wearing, "I go … he fainted."

"But he was fine!" Jack frowned as he stroked the skin gently.

Jack's robe was fine velvet, like a wizard's garb and Owen wondered again how little they really knew about him.

"Adrenaline overload, delayed shock, you almost shagged him to death, take your pick" Owen shrugged.

"So, no damage?" Jack asked, ignoring the barb.

"Jesus Christ, he is OK. He will sleep, wake up and probably be pissed that he fainted given the bug up his butt, hey sorry, should I say captain instead of bug now?" Owen quipped.

"Owen, I never thought I would see the day when my sex life was interesting to you" Jack said with mock sincerity, "You always act like you don't wanna hear it."

Owen huffed.

"OK, if you must know, I am the one who enjoyed the ….er….fulfilment of the exercise last night. Today? No penetration" Jack said proudly.

"Huh? That was a double orgasm and you tell me there was no penetration?" Owen scoffed.

"Yep!" Jack leered. "Happy now? You're voyeurism fulfilled?"

"Tosh? How do you say too much information? "Gwen growled as she walked up the stairs, bored with the whole thing.

"You say TMI and by the way Gwen, good shooting" Tosh called after her.

"Bum licker" Owen muttered.

"Oi! I'll have you know, I've licked some very nice bums but it's none of your business!" Jack quipped as he slapped the back of Owen's head.

"His poor body" Tosh said sadly as she noted the scars and bruises. She reached out and ran her fingers lightly over a large burn that covered his hip.

"What did this, do you think?" she murmured as she watched his eyelids flutter at her touch.

"That is a cyberman's metal plate-work" Jack sighed, "Lisa must have been hot and he was holding her against him as he dragged her through the flames of T1."

"Oh my god" Tosh breathed with horror.

"There is no doubt that he loved her" Jack admitted.

"Jack?" Tosh said softly, "He still doesn't count himself as part of the team, does he"

"No. He still thinks he had to prove himself worthy to be here" Jack answered, trying not to look at Gwen who had paused at the top of the stairs.

"But he is!" Tosh huffed, "He has."

'Then we need to stop babying him and treat him like a valued member, not the pet dog that does tricks." Jack retorted.

"We do not all treat him like that!" Owen glared at Gwen, who ducked her head. "I spent a lot of time with him after the cannibals, finally found someone capable of beating me at Halo. He's bloody quick. We still have beers and gaming every other Sunday. I don't know why I act differently here."

"Jealous?" Jack asked softly and Owen looked at his feet.

"Owen? Which? Of him? Or me?"

Owen grimaced and huffed as Jack touched a nerve. Jack leaned back satisfied that he had guessed correctly. Owen made Ianto smaller because he didn't like Jack showing Ianto attention. Not because he was jealous of Ianto getting the attention, but of Jack being the one to get the shy smile. Well, well, well.

"Look, what's done is done. I think from this point forward, we remember to include him in stuff" Jack said as he clapped Owen on the shoulder, forgiving his feeling immediately. After all, he saw the promise in the young man, how could he begrudge Owen a small crush on the Welshman as well.

"Yeah, yeah." Owen nodded, "Shit he's has this his whole life, no wonder he's so furtive"

"He doesn't know how to accept help because he's never had any" Jack agreed, then he lowered his voice, "He's mine. I meant what I said in the showers. I'll not share. Not this one."

Owen nodded his head as he thought about it, their occasional exchange of playmates in the old days wasn't going to happen now. It hadn't happened since Ianto had come on the scene and now he knew why. Strangely, he felt like that was right and proper.

Owen let go of his feelings and accepted it. Ianto was still a mate.

"Tosh, I want to know what happened to his parents, how did they die?" Jack said as he soothed a small curl away from Ianto's face.

"Done" she moved to comply.

"Gwen, we need to make them visible, we need more … whatever. Wet paint, sand, whatever we can throw on them to give them solid structure." Jack demanded.

"And when he sees the mess and has a bloody dipstick brain explosion?" Owen asked, pointing at Ianto's sleeping form.

"He will forgive us" Jack said, waving his hands at them.

"Let's go!"


	17. Chapter 17

17

They sat around the meeting table as Jack keep a watch over Ianto on the large wall monitor.

"His mother died when he was quite young" Gwen said as she clicked a smaller screen in the corner of the monitor and a picture of a young blonde woman appeared.

Her face was round and youthful, with a spark of personality visible in her smile. Ianto's smile. She was leaning forward as she sat on the floor, the little boy in her arms no older than three or four was laughing. Ianto's head was thrown back and his mouth wide open with glee.

"He was five, just started school" Tosh took over as Gwen seemed to stall out at the sight of the young boy, so different to the man they now knew. "Seems it was his third day of school."

Gwen started out of her fugue and turned to face Jack, "The autopsy results were sent through to Owen."

"Yeah." Owen grimaced, "She was found hanging in the basement. The ligature marks are consistent, but it's the other marks that are interesting. Look."

Owen clicked and the picture changed to show two pale arms, gouged by long scratches.

"Oh my god, like mine!" Tosh gasped as she pulled up her sleeves.

"I think this … these …. Things were after her too. I go, the boy going to school left her alone and vulnerable. They either pushed her to it, or put her there" Owen frowned, "The worst part is what was the notes about the scene of the hanging."

"And?" Jack prodded.

"Ianto was the one who found him." Owen said and then swung with the rest of the team as Ianto cried out in his sleep.

Jack was out of his chair and moving, afraid he was under attack again and he berated himself for leaving him alone. Myfanwy, however, hadn't left him and was crouched over the bed with her head cocked to one side as though she was listening to him.

"Hey girl" Jack said softy and she shuffled back but refused to leave.

Ianto whimpered and Jack carefully pulled him onto his arms as he tried to calm him.

That's when he smelt it.

Like burnt rubber, rotting flesh, melted plastic … death.

"Owen!" Jack roared as he frantically looked around, pulling the limp man deeper into his embrace.

"What the hell is the … fuck! Wat's that smell?" Owen stopped at the bottom of the stairs and wrinkled his nose, then he saw Myfanwy, "Fuck! What's got into her?"

Myfanwy was contorting and making a strangled gargling snarly noise. Tosh was the one to act first, grabbing the bucket of confetti and throwing the water bottle, then the confetti over her.

The team reacted, racing to save her as two different entities were now visible in her space. One was attached to her wing as it struggled with her and the other was trapped under her claws as she angrily tore at it.

Owen snatched a scalpel and plunged it into the entity on her wing and it screamed as it disappeared.

"Does that kill them, or do they just run away!" Gwen shouted as she watched Myfanwy tear the otter one into pieces, then shake her feet with a look of distain.

"Don't know, don't care!" Owen shouted back, "As long as they leave Ianto alone."

Ianto had woken and was clinging to Jack as he watched the team save his pet and more than once he cried out and hid his face as another piece of … whatever… fell into the grating.

Finally, she rose and flew to her nest.

Everyone was panting with exertion and fear as Ianto slid from the bed and wrapped his arms around Jack for comfort.

They made their way back to the meeting room where they all got a look of thunder when the Starbucks cups were seen on the table.

"We didn't want to wake you" Tosh simpered as Ianto huffed.

Then he saw the pictures of his mother on the screen and he reared back.

"Ianto, mate. We think that these things were after her too. We think they caused her death, either directly or indirectly." Owen said softly as he watched Jack help Ianto to a chair.

"Me Mam?" Ianto looked up with wide eyes, "You mean … these fucking things were hurting her too?"

"Your mother was quite a looker!" Owen said as he blew up the image of them together on the floor, "You look a lot like her."

"Yeah. Rhia looks like me Da. She's not me Mam's. Da's first wife died, an accident or something. Mam came along and then me. Why Rhia and I are so different." Ianto shrugged.

"Wait. You have a sister called Rhia and she's your half-sister?" Owen asked as he pulled the PDA over, "wait a minute."

Owen was working so quickly that Tosh was impressed, giving his lesser confidence with computers.

"There! Your sister Rhiannon. Ah, different mums. Huh. Different blood types. Look at that. Do you think it's hereditary? What about your mother's family. Grandparents?" Owen said as he looked over at Ianto.

"None. She used to joke that she was made by machines. Er … a duplicator? Yeah. She said her Dad was her only parental and he was her mother as well. She would only say that he left her behind" Ianto shrugged.

"Well, what was her name before it was Jones?" Owen asked, "Jenny what?"

"Storm. Jenny Storm." Ianto answered and Jack rubbed his back encouragingly.

"Jenny Storm, a middle name?" Owen looked up and Ianto snorted.

"No. Er … Theta, I think. My grandfather's name as a child. Funny, she said my grandfather was a doctor. The Doctor John Smith" Ianto said and he pulled back as Jack gaped at him.

"What?"


	18. Chapter 18

18

"Did you ever meet him?" Jack asked calmly.

"Who? Granddad?" Ianto frowned, "No. She said they lost touch. I never saw any of her people."

"So you never knew your mother's family" Jack said and Ianto frowned at him for sounding weird.

"Are you just going to keep repeating that in different ways?" Ianto asked and Jack smiled as he shook his head.

"Sorry Darl … Ianto. Just thinking." Jack turned to Gwen, "See what you can find."

She nodded enthusiastically as Ianto looked at her with a soft frown. He knew she would find nothing, even Mainframe hadn't efforted that one.

He rose and made for the door, then slowed and looked back, "Er, Owen? Got a minute?"

Owen looked up from his PDA and smiled, placing it on the table and following him.

"Owen?" Ianto said softly as they walked down to the kitchen, "Are you OK?"

"Me?" Owen snorted, "You're the one in the wars ya numpty!"

"Yeah" Ianto grinned with affection, "You're so quiet. Katie? I'm sorry if I dragged things up, it was a mean thing to do. Using her memory like that."

"Hey, you were making a point. And you were right. Katie and I never got to walk down the aisle thanks to aliens, you and Lisa were the same deal." Owen patted Ianto's arm and then bit back a soft laugh and Jack suddenly appeared, pushing between them.

"Come on, let me help you with the coffee" Jack gushed, taking Ianto by the elbow and steering him away from Owen.

Ianto looked confused for a moment, then giggled as he realised what was going on. He looked back at Owen and winked as Owen poked out his tongue.

He made the coffee with a soft smile, the crush Owen had on him was no real secret between them. They had talked it over and agreed it would never work with their personalities. Ianto had caught the humour in the medic and Jack's possessiveness. He would need to have words with Owen when he got a chance. Ianto looked over at Jack and realised he might not get a chance. Jack wasn't going anywhere, anytime soon.

"Jack?" Ianto said softly, "One of the others is just as good for keeping me safe if you have other things to be doing."

"Nope, nothing better to do" Jack grinned as he leaned back against the bench.

Ianto snorted and slid a cup over.

"This isn't my mug!" Jack said as he stared at the red mug.

"Gwen's. This week anyway, until she breaks it" Ianto shrugged, "Could you add the two sugars?"

"Oh!" Jack crowed as he gleefully poured two heaped tea spoons of sugar from the bowl to the cup. So full that they dribbled over the bench and Ianto rolled his eyes as he saw a clean-up in his future.

The next mug was blue with small flowers, "Toshi. Just a dab of cream."

Jack did it perfectly and Ianto smiled as he knew Jack had made Tosh coffee before.

A jet black one with skull and crossbones.

"Owen?" Jack grinned, "Any sugar or creamer?"

"No, he likes it as is" Ianto said as he worked.

The next mug was placed down and Jack grinned as he recognised his own, "Where's yours?"

"Here" Ianto replied as he placed a plain white one down.

"That's it? No Welsh dragon? No quote?" Jack asked as he examined it.

"No point getting attached, I seem to go through mugs these days" Ianto answered as he reached for the sugar bowl.

"Sugar?"

"Yes honey?"

Jack snorted and then pushed Ianto with his shoulder.

"Stop it ya git, I'm spilling!" Ianto giggled.

"Jack?" Gwen stood in the doorway and when she spoke the smile faded from Ianto's face again as he turned quickly to fetch a cloth.

"Gwen?"

"Ianto's mother doesn't exist. No birth Certificate, no social security number, no drivers licence. The wedding certificate and death certificate are the only proof she even walked this earth." Gwen folded her arms, "No school record, no medical history pre-marriage and it looks like she dropped from the sky!"

Jack frowned and stepped towards her, aware of the frozen Welshman at the sink, "Be careful in your choice of words, Gwen. If you are going to suggest she is from the rift then you better back it up with proof!"

Ianto turned to glare at her and Gwen realised her mistake.

"No, no. I'm sorry pet, I didn't mean to sound cold" she said as she stepped forward to accept the cup he was now offering. "I'm sure she was a good mum. You turned out to be a lovely fella."

"She was" Ianto sighed, "Cuddles, kisses and lots of exciting stories come bedtime."

"Stories?" Gwen grinned as she sipped her coffee, "Me Daddy likes to tell me stories. What kind?"

"She did tell me a story once" Ianto said as he turned to Jack, "about a warrior race that made soldiers fully grown out of a single persons DNA. She used to tell it to me about it at bedtime. A progenation machine! That's what she called it. From the planet Messaline. She was so good at stories. But she said that was why we had no family."

"So she explained her orphan state on a war?" Gwen smiled and nodded. "Clever."

"Jenny Smith, that was her birth name." Ianto suddenly remembered, "Then she said her father was a Storm or something so she changed it when she left the army."

Jack was stunned to silence as he looked at Ianto with fresh eyes, "Ianto? What's the time?"

"Thirteen and a half minutes past two, why?" Ianto asked as he canted his head.

"How do you know that?" Jack stepped closer.

"Don't be silly, because that's the time." Ianto frowned, "Can't you feel it?"


	19. Chapter 19

19

The team had been left bewildered by Jack's sudden change in demeanor as he grabbed Ianto by the arm and propelled him toward his office.

"Jack?" Ianto frowned as he started to struggle, "You're hurting me."

Jack flicked him into the office and slammed the door, effectively trapping Ianto as he leaned against it.

"What the hell!" Ianto spluttered, "That's gonna bruise."

"The Doctor. You are related to the Doctor and never thought to tell me?" Jack demanded, hating the coarseness in his voice.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Ianto frowned as he rubbed his arm.

"The On-Coming Storm! John Smith?" Jack snarled.

Ianto focused on him and felt himself shrinking, "Why are you so angry with me?"

"God damn it all!" Jack roared, "They are names of the Doctor!"

"Theta? His birth name, the one never spoken!" Jack reached for Ianto again and this time Ianto visibly flinched with fear.

Jack hesitated and then gently pulled him into his arms.

"Shit. Sorry, sorry" Jack kissed Ianto's cheeks, nose, eyelids, forehead, and finally lips as he apologized for his rough treatment.

"You hurt me" Ianto pouted.

"You startled me!" Jack retorted, pulling back to examine the pout, then another kiss.

Long and languid this time and he was rewarded with a low moan as Ianto pushed against him.

"Sorry" Jack whispered, more butterfly kisses as Ianto gasped and rubbed against his hip.

"God, you're like fucking catnip" Ianto moaned.

Catnip? Jack pushed him back against the desk and slid his hands around that tantalizing butt, kneading as he ground their erections together and Ianto cried out, throwing his head back.

The office door slammed open, "What the fuck are you doing to him, if you hurt him I …. FUCK"

Owen went bright red as he took in the hands inside clothes and the breathless Welshman blinking at him.

"Busy Owen" Jack panted and Owen retreated with a soft huff.

"Jack" Ianto gasped as he tried to break his grip only to find himself fighting an octopus.

Jack didn't answer as he bit into his neck, immobilizing him as he fumbled with their trousers, then he turned Ianto to the desk and shakily applied some lube from his packet on the desk.

Enough talk.

Jack pushed in gently, Ianto's gasp urging him on. His fingers had ill prepared the young man who pushed back wantonly anyway.

Ianto was moaning decadently now as Jack fully sheathed himself.

"My very own Timelord" Jack muttered as he pulled Ianto off the desk and hugged him against his chest, "My lover."

The angle was amazing and Ianto couldn't speak, just pant and Jack canted his hips and jiggled.

Ianto cried out, lusty and wanton as he grabbed for Jack's arms to steady himself.

"Good?" Jack leered.

"More, god damn it!" Ianto demanded through clenched teeth and Jack complied.

The team froze down in the main hub bowl as Jack began to bellow his release, followed by a high pitched wail.

"Jesus" Owen snored, "Virgin no more."

"Shit up Owen" Tosh snarled as she listened, aching to see the CCTV up.

She noted the time and smiled ot herself.

No one was watching the feed for the cells and Janet's roar stopped them leering as Owen ran for her.

Something was attacking her by the sounds of it.


	20. Chapter 20

20

They found Janet squashed into the far corner of her cell, snarling and shaking her head from side to side in a vicious manner.

"Easy girl" Owen soothed, placing his hand on the plexi-glass, only to snatch it back.

"What is it?" Jack asked, stepping forward to touch the wall himself.

"It's freezing!" Jack gaped.

"What the fuck would cause that?" Owen muttered with wonder as he pointed up, towards the ceiling. Icicles.

"What could have caused such a drastic drop in temperature?" Gwen asked, looking up with the rest of them.

Tosh was scanning it and noted the temperature change in the upper areas still.

"Rift?" Owen asked as he scratched his head.

"Possibly a spike, hard to tell with the temperature changes we usually get as well." Tosh shrugged. "Ianto will have the readouts for this level somewhere."

Jack looked at her as she spoke, then around at the rest of them and a look of horror crossed his face.

It wasn't until he was running back up to the main hub that Owen twigged, "Fuck. Ianto."

They all scattered across the hub, weapons drawn as they searched for their comrade.

Ianto exited the kitchen with a tray of drinks and gave a shout of surprise, dropping the try with a large clatter as Gwen grabbed his arm.

"Are you OK?" she demanded and he looked at the floor with a look of despair.

"I was" he said dryly.

"Gwen?" Jack had rushed over at the crashing and now found Ianto on his hands and knees as he picked broken china from the grating.

"I … I thought he …. I saw …" she frowned as she looked at Ianto like it was his fault.

"Don't look at me!" Ianto snarled as he went to get a mop and bucket.

"I'm sorry" Gwen called after him with slumped shoulders.

"Gwen, what happened?" Jack asked.

"I saw him walking and I thought, I know it's silly but it looked like someone was walking with him, I could have sworn he had an arm around his shoulder, like they were speaking to him," she frowned.

Ianto returned with his mop and bucket, glaring at Gwen as he started to clean the mess up. He levered up a section of grating and sighed as he found a pool of tea. "What a mess, didn't even get to her."

"Who?" Gwen asked.

"Mainframe. She likes tea."

"Ianto, did you hear something before Gwen spoke?" Jack asked, "When he grabbed you?"

Ianto canted his head as he considered the question.

"I don't… maybe. There was a breeze from the outer doors … I think" Ianto huffed, "They weren't open, were they."

"No Ianto. The outer doors are all secure. Gwen saw something near you" Jack said softly as he watched Ianto's eyes widen.

Ianto looked around and then frowned, showing a backbone as he straightened his back and squared his shoulders.

"I'm not afraid" he said calmly, "I have you."

Jack felt something inside of his gut move. Ianto's face was earnest and full of affection.

Gods, the Doctor was going to kill him when he found out.

Jack had fallen in love.


	21. Chapter 21

21

Ianto was tired and he didn't want to push his luck so he tried to catch a few Zs on the sofa.

Jack came wandering past and saw Tosh watching Ianto's head nodding.

"Hey, come on. Bed" Jack said softly as he stroked Ianto's cheek.

Ianto seemed to purr as he rubbed his nose into Jack's palm and Jack felt that fluttering again.

Wow.

After all this time, he can still get the stomach flutters.

Ianto stumbled down to the bunker and flopped onto the bed.

"I like this bed" Ianto declared as Jack removed his shoes for him.

It was becoming a habit, not that Jack minded.

Ianto rubbing his back affectionately as he dropped then at last he and turned, glad to find Ianto rising to meet him.

"Ahhhhh, oh Cariad" Ianto sighed as Jack kissed his earlobe.

Oh how Jack has missed this.

A relationship.

A real relationship.

Ianto knew what he liked, his hands showing memory even if Ianto was otherwise boneless.

Ianto was warm, soft and pliable. Ianto was familiar and it felt like sliding into a hot bath at the end of the day as he sheathed himself in Ianto.

He watched Ianto's eyes roll back with passion as they fucked.

Fucked?

No.

As Ianto's head lolled he sighed softly, his hands on Jack's elbows as he helped stabilize him, Jack knew he was gone.

"Oh Ianto" he bit out as he felt Ianto's internal muscles quivering.

"Jack, please Cariad"

Jack slammed harder, moving Ianto up the bed as he sought to please him.

Fucking?

No.

Jack leaned in and took Ianto's bottom lip between his own, sucking it in and nibbling as Ianto fought against him.

"Ianto" Jack moaned as his own body betrayed him and he filled Ianto, who gave in and came along for the ride.

This wasn't that.

Not a shag.

Not a fuck.

This was called making love.

As Jack watched Ianto's face glow with bliss, he knew for certain that he was never letting him go.

"Ianto, darling" Jack crooned, gathering him into his arms and holding him close, kissing his face as Ianto blissed out.

"My lovely man" Jack smiled as Ianto sighed into his neck and nuzzled.

"Sleep darling, I'm right here" Jack promised as he settled his naked man against his chest, like a child.

Ianto hummed softly as he listened to Jack's heartbeat and began to drift off to sleep.

Jack smiled into the brightly lit room.

Ianto snuffled and moaned, then settled again as his hand flopped against Jack's stomach. Jack watched the hand as it opened and closed compulsively.

Then it turned over, palm down and Ianto began to stroke his abs.

Jack snorted as Ianto hummed some more in his sleep.

"Hey Darling, that tickles" Jack whispered.

Ianto muttered and kissed the skin beneath his face and rubbed his nose for a while, sliding deeper into sleep.

"Ianto?"

Jack checked.

Asleep.

"I think I love you, ya know" Jack said softly, shaking his head with wonder.

Ianto was careful not to answer as his hearts stopped and he felt a weird …. Fluttering in his gut.


	22. Chapter 22

22

Ianto slept like the dead.

Waking to the sensation of the bed dipping as Jack carefully stood.

"Jack?"

"It's OK, I just need the hit the head" Jack said softly, "I'll leave the door open."

Ianto nodded and stretched as he watched the naked Captain wander into the bathroom. Ianto grinned as he watched the bum wriggle out again for a second.

 _Cheeky bugger._

Ianto sighed and closed his eyes as he enjoyed the sound of Jack singing softly, covering the sound of pee hitting water.

He had his eyes closed but still knew when the lights went out.

His eyes flew open as he looked towards the bathroom, finding a bright shaft of light.

 _Blown bulb?_

Ianto carefully slid from the bed, creeping towards the safety of the light.

He held his breath, hoping against hope that he would be safe.

He felt the tendrils of cold as they wound around his ankle and he tried to cry out to Jack but was pulled off his feet with such force that his breath was knocked from him.

He slapped against the concrete floor, grunting with the pain of bruised or maybe broken ribs as he struggled to call out.

The smell of rotting flesh filled his nostrils, making him want to vomit as he rolled onto his back and threw his arms over his face.

He felt something piercing the flesh of his arm and finally found the breath to scream as he gouged at the thing with his other hand.

"Ianto!" Jack yelled as he pounded into the room and threw his naked body onto the entity.

Ianto screamed again as he felt something raking at his shins and he tried desperately to buck it off.

The room was bathed in light, blinding Ianto but he heard Owen's roars as he joined the battle with a loud thump and groan that sounded like Gwen.

Then came the loud noise of a fire extinguisher and Ianto cried out as cold foam hit his bare skin.

Jack was making a terrible noise and Ianto blinked as he fought to regain his sight, rolling to his hands and knees as he crawled towards Jack's death rattle.

Owen was working desperately to save him but Ianto pulled him back as he saw the chest was torn open and Jack was suffering.

Ianto grabbed a scalpel and plunged it into Jack's left eyeball as Owen now screamed with horror. Ianto struggled to remove the scalpel from the eye socket and let it fall to the concrete with shock.

Then darkness returned to the room.

At least, for Ianto.

.

.

.

Jack was pacing as Owen worked.

"Would you either stop doing that out the corner of my eye or fuck off" Owen snarled, still angry at the first resurrection he had ever witnessed.

His hands were shaking as he reached for the needle and thread, nerves shot from the revelation that his boss was immortal.

 _Fucking bastard had fooled them all._

As he turned to stich the livid tears to the alabaster skin of Ianto's left arm, his shaking stopped and Owen became the iceman.

He had completed the scratched legs and still marveled at the luck. The fucking thing had torn into his flesh but missed a main artery by a hair's breadth.

The arm was the real problem, the gouges deep, two to the bone.

Jack had stopped pacing and moved to Ianto's side, taking the hand of the undamaged arm and gently checking the fingers for damage.

"Told you they're just bruised" Owen snarled, "Funny. You acting like you don't trust me. I'm not the one with a big bloody secret!"

"I'm an alien" Ianto said softly, startling them both out of their staring contest. "I am half human, half … something Jack knows is not dangerous."

Owen gaped.

"I can't explain it but me mam was not of this world. I know that now."

Owen looked down at his hand as it rested on Ianto's forearm. He removed it like Ianto was hot.

"Owen." Ianto whispered, "Owen. I'm afraid. Please don't hate me for fearing rejection."

Owen frowned and then threw the suture needle into a nearby bowl. "Shit!"

"Owen?" Ianto looked at Jack, fear evident and Jack pulled him into a sitting position as he held him against his chest.

"It's OK, it will all be OK" Jack soothed, "No one will reject you. No one will hurt you darling. Oh Ianto, please stop shaking."

"It's all going to change now" Ianto sighed, "Now everyone has a good reason to hate me. A better one than Lisa. Thanks to my anatomy I can be a real freak."

"Stop it" Owen snapped, "You are not a freak!"

"Actually, I think Tosh was impressed with your … ah … anatomy" Jack leered.

"Oh god" Ianto wailed as he suddenly remembered he had been naked in Jack's bunker when attacked and subsequently had blacked out.

"Is there no dignity left?"


	23. Chapter 23

23

Ianto was mortified to know Tosh had seen him naked, as had Gwen from her position at the bottom of the ladder.

Yeah.

The thud was her falling.

She sat with her ankle elevated and covered with an icepack as she listened to Jack's explanation of Ianto's heritage.

"So he's an alien!" she said with a frown.

"Half. Born and bred in Wales." Jack answered, turning to look at her a second time as he caught her frown.

"Is he safe?"

"Was he half an hour ago?" Jack retorted, "What do you mean?"

"Don't be bloody smart. Are we at risk from him!" she demanded.

"Jesus. Can you hear yourself?" Owen snorted. "This is Ianto we're talking about."

Jack grew extremely still as he finally got that she was asking if they were safe from Ianto, not about his safety.

"How dare you" Jack growled in a low voice. "You knew my secret but found me appealing enough to work for. You think I'm from around these parts, lady?"

"Wait. Big tits knew about this wee circus act of yours?" Owen exploded.

"Circus act. I can tell you stories about …"

"Big tits. You are such a gentleman" Ianto muttered from the bed.

"Well. She does. Fucking gorgeous tits." Owen tried to defend himself and knew as soon as he had opened his mouth that he was just digging himself deeper.

Tosh made a small noise in her throat and then canted her head as he glared at him.

"Aw, come on Tosh. She does. If it's any consolation, you have the best bum by far!" Owen whined as he backed away from the women.

"Actually, I have to disagree there ya cockney git" came a slurred answer from the bed, "Jack has the nice … nicest bum I've ever seen. Especially naked."

Everyone turned to look at him.

"Love them buns in those trousers too."

Tosh giggled as Jack made a little noise of delight.

"Would love to see him in jeans. Nice tight, huggy kind of blue jeans," Ianto sighed softly.

"Aw pet, we all would" Gwen soothed as she hobbled to the bed and took a seat, reaching for the undamaged hand.

"You do have nice boobs Gwen; Owen is right there" Ianto told her seriously with wide eyes.

"How much pain relief does he have onboard?" Jack asked Owen who shrugged.

"Toshi smells the best" Ianto continued his outer monologue for the team, "I love the smell of her hair when I place her cup down. She is so lovely I could just cuddle her like a wee teddy bear."

Tosh placed her hands over her hands as she giggled with delight, "Oh Ianto."

"What about me!" Owen demanded, folding his arms as he waited for his own attributes to be listed.

"Owen?"

"Well?" Owen asked, "What do you like about me!"

"You are the bestest at insults. That one you told that copper the other day about his mother and a hotdog bun was priceless." Ianto snorted, "You make me laugh so much."

"I never hear it" Owen grinned as he recalled the Bobby and his look of horror.

"Owen. I am Welsh. We laugh on the inside" Ianto waved his hand in Gwen's direction and she nodded.

"Yes pet, we laugh at them all the time" she agreed as she patted his arm.

"Tired"

"Of course you are" Jack moved around, settling on the bed as he rubbed at Ianto's chest.

"Hurts"

"Shit" Owen muttered, "He has two broken ribs that side, he hit the floor pretty hard."

"My poor baby" Jack crooned, kissing Ianto's forehead.

"Missed."

"What baby?" Jack frowned, a pout from Ianto appearing.

"Missed."

Jack laughed as he caught on and apologized for his bad aim, kissing the pout gently.

"Better"


	24. Chapter 24

24

Ianto woke to the feeling of warmth and sighed softly into the well-lit room.

"Hey babe" Jack crooned, leaning over to kiss him.

"Jack!" Ianto blushed, looking furtively at the door.

"Ah, yeah. About that, do you remember after the attack? In the autopsy bay?" Jack asked gently.

"Can we not call it that? It sounds so …. OH MY GOD!"

Jack laughed softly as he stroked his cheek, "It's OK. Not like they didn't know what you mean to me."

"Stop it" Ianto blushed more, "That's harassment Sir!"

"Come on, you love it!" Jack snorted.

"Um, well I know what I do love" Ianto whispered as he leaned closer. Then reared back as Gwen blustered into the room.

"There you are Pet" she grinned, showing that gap for all the world to see, had one on her teeth too. Sorry. That was mean, she can't help having an empty head, Ianto chastised himself.

"Gwen" he frowned as he remembered Jack's growling at her for some reason.

"Well, we now have auxiliary power all raring to go, if we have a power surge, cut or otherwise intermission the auxiliary will kick in within seconds" she gushed.

"You did?" Ianto couldn't help it, watching her squirm.

"Well, Tosh, Owen and I" she amended with a flick of her hair.

Jack hid a grin as he caught Ianto's look of disbelief and asked Gwen to get some iced water for Ianto's throat.

"Thank you Cariad" Ianto sighed as she bustled off, leaving him in peace at least.

"Ianto?" Jack sat on the edge of the bed, "There was no reason for the lights to go out. The bulb was fine, the connections good and the switch was on."

"You know, that's not the first time it's happened like that" Ianto said sadly, "They watch me, like they are always right there, just beyond our vision."

"Ianto, tell me something I can do to help, tell me what we can do to protect you" Jack begged, "There must be something we can do."

"We need to get to mainframe, she'll be cranky without her tea" Ianto said and Jack frowned at the change of conversation.

"I'm safe in her room" Ianto explained, "They have never touched me there."

Owen had OK'd Ianto to walk and he gingerly made his way down stairs as Jack helped him, Tosh following with a tea pot and a confused Owen carrying a chair.

Gwen stayed topside to watch the monitors for any movement.

Ianto stopped at a set of doors and calmly reached out, knocking three times.

The doors swung open and Ianto stepped inside, cooing softly at the glowing blue walls.

Jack stood with a look of disbelief as Ianto babbled away at the coral and stroked it lovingly, reaching for the teapot.

"See darling? I didn't forget" Ianto crooned as he poured it over the base of the wall, it pulsed and then changed to a golden glow.

Ianto sat in the chair, pulled against a wall as he leaned against her.

Jack couldn't speak as he reached blindly for something to keep him upright.

"What is it?" Tosh whispered with awe.

"Mainframe" Ianto said as he stroked her, tendrils of golden light twirling around him.

"Oh my God!" Tosh enthused as she clasped her hands, "It's alive isn't it?"

"Her. She. I don't know what her name was originally, she didn't seem to remember. She's been down here for so long, rotting away. Unloved." Ianto sighed, "I call her Mama."

Jack slid down the wall and landed on the floor, his butt cushioning his fall.

"Ianto, you know what she is, same as I do," Jack huffed and Ianto looked down at him with surprise.

"Jack? Why are you down there?"

"Ianto." Jack scolded, "Stop playing. You know what this is."

"Of course I do" Ianto canted his head.

"She's a Tardis."


	25. Chapter 25

25

"Oh my god" Tosh knew her eyes were bugging but she couldn't stop staring at the Timelord.

"She is very old. Has been here forever. I think she was stolen or … you know … taken by Torchwood and placed down here. She was so lonely that she grew, seeking comfort. Poor girl, lovely, sweetie darling" Ianto pouted as he rubbed his cheek, leaving a bright golden spot where his skin had touched the coral.

"Ianto. You are a Timelord. This is a Tardis. Holy Shit on a stick!" Jack laughed.

"Timelord. Fuck. Time, that's what they're after!" Owen suddenly burst into life, "They come from … somewhere, they must need energy to get there … here … you know!"

"Maybe" Ianto agreed, "They are afraid of Mama though."

Jack looked for a console, creeping around and yelped as she reacted.

"Oh, careful." Ianto warned, "You feel strange to her with your … er … gift. She says you were connected to another Tardis and you are a different … oh. Really? Like batteries having positive and negative charges?"

Jack realized Ianto was talking to the coral and waited patiently as Ianto canted his head to listen.

"Oh. God, really. Jack!" Ianto swung with wide eyes, "She says someone used the heart of a Tardis to make you … live."

Jack was dumbfounded and shrugged to show his confusion.

"Oh. The Doctor? You know him?" Ianto smiled, "Yes dear. What? Jenny? Oh ... oh … me mam!"

"Ianto?" Jack asked softly.

"This Tardis feels my mother within me, feels my heritage. Oh my goodness …. Why didn't you tell me this before … what? Jack? What does Jack have to do with … oh."

"Ianto?"

"The Doctor is my mother's creator. I am his … what. Grandson? Wow. You are giving her more strength, ever since you came to Torchwood she had felt alive, she has gained strength from you." Ianto stroked the coral, "She tells me that we are a good match. Time with timelessness."

Jack smiled as he reached out again, this time letting a tendril stroke his palm.

"Hello darling." He crooned.

"Oh! She likes you" Ianto laughed.

"Good, because I like her, anyone that is kind to you is a friend of mine" Jack said solemnly.

"Do you really think those … thangs are attacking me because of my Timelord blood?" Ianto frowned, "God. The girl, she … she said they wanted her baby. The baby was special. A new breed of Timelord"

Ianto swung with a look of pure horror.

"Oh my god, it's mine. Right? They were breeding me!" Ianto was getting upset as he rubbed his hands, then his phone went.

"Damn, not now aunty!" he growled and Jack took the phone.

"Hello, Captain Jack Harkness here" he boomed.

"Ah. This is the Mistress. Well, well, well. I always wondered what you sounded like. Something is wrong with Ianto, where is he?"

"You did? You've heard of me?" Jack frowned.

"Theta and his little pets."

Jack looked at the phone with confusion, "Who are you?"

"I am Ianto's Aunt Missy" she said calmly, "Was called Master once, but that was then. I'm a girl now, can you imagine? Not been a girl since I was a wee loomer!"

"A Timelord" Jack whispered.

"Ah, you are clever. Yes. My little nephew has been under my care for some time, I told him not to go for the freak," Missy snorted.

"She isn't being mean is she?" Ianto asked softly, "It's not her fault. He hears things. Drums."

Jack handed him the phone, totally confused now.

"The Silence. I think they used my DNA and impregnated a girl who had a baby" Ianto told her, "I think Melody Pond is my daughter."

Silence.

"Aunty?"

"Aunty!"

"Oh Great Rassollin, I get to tell him!" she finally crowed, "He married his own great granddaughter!"

"Aunty! What?"

"Melody Pond. Darling, she's called River Song now days."

"River Song?"

Jack's head shot up as he finally got the niggle answered.

"Professor Song! Oh Gods, that woman is a force to be reckoned with, Jesus. Ah…." Jack stalled out as his brain struggled to take it in.

"But … Aunty. She's a full grown woman!" Ianto huffed.

"Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey dear."

"Oh."

The thump as Jack blacked out had everyone turning with surprise.


	26. Chapter 26

26

Jack woke to find himself on a mattress Owen had dragged down to the room.

His boots had been removed and neatly placed to one side, signs of Ianto.

The coat was neatly hung over the back of a high-backed chair.

Definitely Ianto.

The quilt was lovely, one he had not seen before and he knew by the feel of it that mainframe had somehow provided it.

Dervoltian Silk, finest in the known universe.

Wow.

Jack looked around as he blinked away the last of his sleep addled confusion, then looked down.

Ianto was asleep, curled up against him like a little kitten and Jack couldn't help but smile, then start as is all came back.

 _Gods, my bloody head!_

Jack sat up and stretched, noting the coral as it changed colour to welcome him.

"Hello gorgeous" he said softly, "Sorry about that lack of control there. A bit much for even my advanced brain to compute, ya know?"

She seemed to consider, then brighten.

Ianto muttered in his sleep, then sighed.

Jack crooned as he pulled the quilt over him and rubbed his back.

Ianto snuggled against him some more and Jack leaned in to kiss him, reveling in the comfort of company.

"Oh Ianto, what am I going to do with you" Jack sighed.

"Well he can't live in here for the rest of his life!" Owen answered from the doorway.

"Why not!" Jack snarked back, "This is a Tardis. A sentient being that can change and morph, she can provide all the living space he needs and …"

Jack tapered off as he heard his own words and sighed, looking down at the small lump that could not be kept a prisoner.

Gwen entered with some food and placed it on the chair by the mattress.

"Is he still sleeping?" she asked, peering over Jack and Jack frowned as her loud voice made Ianto stir.

"Way to go Cooper" Owen sighed as he rolled his eyes.

Ianto sat up and looked around with confusion, "Jack?"

"Here sweetheart" Jack reached for him, glad of the way Ianto immediately fell into his arms.

Gwen left, fumbling with her pockets and Jack dismissed her as jealous.

Owen hunkered down and grinned as he watched Jack open the food containers, offering Ianto some chips soaked in vinegar.

Ianto hummed happily as he opened his mouth, like a little chick.

 _Just when you thought he couldn't get any more lovable._

Gwen stormed past Tosh with her phone to her ear and Tosh was about to yell at her to slow down when she registered Ianto's name in the conversation.

She hurried back to a terminal, dread urging her on.

She pulled up Gwen's phone records, honing in on the current conversation.

She leaned back as she listened, then let out a cry of horror as she rose and tore the comms from her ear.

Tosh then ran for the safe room, her stomach in knots as she tried to remain calm.

Gwen's phone was connected with Unit.


	27. Chapter 27

27

The room was silent as everyone stared at Tosh.

She burst into tears, falling to her knees on the mattress as she pulled Ianto into her arms.

"Are you sure?" Owen asked in a small voice, "What exactly did the bitch say?"

"She confirmed that Ianto is a descendant of the Doctor." She sighed as Ianto stroked her face with a small noise of concern.

 _Trust him._

 _His world about to be torn apart and he wants to comfort her._

"Oh Ianto, what will we do?"

Ianto blinked and considered, frowning as Jack's VM pinged.

Jack looked at Ianto, then flipped it open as the Doctor's voice boomed out.

"Jack? Jack? Jack, Jack, Jackity Jack?" the Doctor's voice was playful, "Oh Captain! What is going on there? I get this weird message from an old friend, literally taunting me and all I can work out is that you've done something to offend me!"

"Doctor" Jack sighed, letting his head fall back as he looked at the ceiling.

The ceiling of a Tardis.

"Hey Doc, guess where I am!"

"Ohhhhhh, a quiz? This a quiz? I love games"

Ianto rubbed his face as he looked around, trying to comprehend what was going on.

"Oh! You're in the hub!"

"Yeah, you found my VM. Now, use it to see what I am in!"

"You minx!"

Jack grinned as he waited.

"Oh, you …. You ….. great Rassollin …. What …. Jack? When are you?"

"Now. Here. Not yours Doc, this is someone else's!"

The sound of grinding filled the room and the Doctor exploded from the Tardis with his sonic screwdriver out, like a musketeer with a sword.

"On Guard?" Ianto asked softly.

The Doctor looked at him, and blinked.

He re-aimed the screwdriver and frowned.

"Hi Doctor!" Jack said softly, watching Ianto as he squashed himself against Jack.

"Jack? Am I in a Tardis?"

"This is Mama" Ianto said, "She's my friend. She's been here a very long time."

"Oh wow, aren't you a beauty!" the Doctor crowed.

"Jack has a baby one upstairs as well" Ianto offered and the doctor gaped, then took off up the stairs.

"Why did you do that?" Jack hissed, extracting himself from the bed.

"He was pointing that thing at me, I didn't like it!" Ianto pouted.

Jack was almost out the door when he suddenly stopped and swung back to look at Ianto.

"You're up to something."

Ianto shrugged.

"Ianto?"

The Doctor burst back into the room, making Jack step back as he crowed with the coral in his hands.

"Jack! This is a darling little girl; you know she needs her mother." The Doctor scolded, holding the coral up to his Tardis.

Ianto blinked and stepped back, against the wall.

"Ianto?"

The doctor looked over at Ianto, like he had just remembered him and gave a bark of warning as Ianto turned to Jack with a look of sorrow.

"Sorry Cariad, I can't let him take me"

The Doctor dropped the coral onto the bed as he stepped towards Ianto with his hands held out, palms showing.

"Ianto?" Jack repeated.

To Jack's horror, Ianto seemed to melt into the wall as the Doctor rushed forward, his hands slapping against solid coral.

Ianto was gone.


	28. Chapter 28

28

Jack was beside himself as he leaned against the wall, begging for Ianto to come back.

The coral had faded to a dull gray, solid like granite and Jack couldn't get any response.

Mainframe had gone silent.

The Doctor was confused as he looked around, trying to understand.

"He's a Timelord!" he finally said with wonder.

Jack groaned as his head slammed against the coral.

"His mother was a woman called Jenny. Jenny Storm or Smith. Your daughter from some sort of DNA machine" Tosh told him, "He is your grandson, according to the Mistress, Master … whatever. Apparently the Silence keep taking him and experimenting on him because of your bloodline."

The Doctor gaped, mouthing 'Timelord' as he blinked.

"They used him to create a new breed of Timelord. Some girl called Pond was impregnated? A baby called Melody …. But …. Not …. called River … Doctor?"

The Doctor had dropped to his knees on the mattress as he hyperventilated, Jack finally turning from the wall to look at him with despair.

"Doctor? Bring him back? Please?" Jack's voice was so small and bereft.

"You love him." The Doctor finally said.

Jack shifted from foot to foot as he nodded silently.

"Right. Focus" the Doctor demanded as he slapped himself in the head a few times, rising from the bedding, "Right. The Silence? Right."

He strode from the room and into the hub, then turned on his heel and returned to the room.

"How many?"

"The most we've been able to track at one time was four" Tosh told him and he swung to look at her.

He blinked a few times and suddenly shook himself like a dog, then smiled.

"Doctor Sato! How lovely, long time no see. Different face for me, oooo, wait. What? Four? How did you track them?" he babbled without taking breath.

"I'll show you" Tosh said calmly, years of Jack's excitement coming to good use.

Jack refused to leave the room incase Ianto retuned once the Doctor was gone and Tosh felt a great sorrow as she watched him slump against the coral wall.

The Doctor reviewed the footage, making notes on his palm with a finger like it was paper and Owen screwed his finger around his ear more than once in the universal code for "Cuckoo".

Finally, the Doctor sat blinking as he computed the fact that Jenny had survived her death with a partial regeneration, Ianto was his grandson and River was … wow.

He sighed and walked slowly back to the Tardis/Room as he chewed over the unmistakable fact that he had a duty of care to this young man.

A young man who had some sort of involvement with the last person the Doctor would have chosen as a family member.

Jack was sitting on the floor, still leaning against the coral and as he looked up at the Doctor he saw total devotion.

Jack was not going to move until Ianto came back.

"Ianto. Welsh, right?" the Doctor settled in the bedding.

"He's Welsh. Lovely Welsh kitten" Jack said softly, "My Welshman."

"So I see"

Tosh walked in and touched Jack's arm, "Those sons of bitches are at the door."

She was shaking with rage, fear … determination and Jack smiled as he saw his little mouse show large teeth.

"Don't let them in" Jack said as he sighed and rose to his feet.

"Too late, the bitch already did!" Owen snarled form the doorway.

"I'll take care of this!" the Doctor growled as he shook himself, resetting his feathers.

"You want to see a Timelord, you will get a Timelord." He muttered as he strode into the main hub.

Time to meet the Oncoming Storm!


	29. Chapter 29

29

Unit were surprised to see the Doctor, pleased to see a friendly face in the T3 den.

They were unprepared for his ire as he chastised them for listening to Gwen's lies, telling them he was just a Timelord and she couldn't handle his relationship with the Captain so she made it all up.

It was several sniggers before he realized what they thought he meant and then he did fire up.

They left with a flea in their ear the size of a mac truck and the Doctor then went in search of the main problem.

Gwen was sitting behind Jack's desk trying to lever the bottom drawer open as he stood watching in the doorway.

"Ah, Ms Cooper. A word please" he purred and she squealed, letting the knife slip and slice the heel of her hand.

She swore as she grabbed a handful of tissues, pressing them against her palm.

"That must sting" he said happily.

"What the hell do you want!" she snarled angrily.

"To tell you that unit are gone and they left you something in the cells, said it was just for you." He smiled again, "Made it sound really important."

She squealed as she rushed off, pausing and then returning for her phone, "Wanna selfie against the glass with him."

The Doctor snorted as he calculated that "Him" was Ianto and she was in for a wee surprise.

The Doctor followed her calmly, finding her standing in the vacant cell with a look of confusion as a single file sat on the seat.

She picked it up and sat, flipping through it and becoming quite pale as the Unit's file on the Doctor laid out the consequences of pissing off a Timelord.

He silently swung the door shut, wandering back down to the mainframe room where Jack was gently singing to the room.

"Can he hear me?" Jack asked softly, "Do you think he can hear me?"

"He can hear and see us" the Doctor sighed as he sat with Jack, "He's just deciding what to do."

"Of course" he continued, "Cooper is now in a cell next to that very angry Weevil and Unit are gone. There is nothing to fear and he should really grow a backbone."

Jack waited, staring expectantly as the wall.

After a while it started to undulate and Ianto stepped out, a face of pure anger as he bore down on his grandfather.

"Grow a backbone?" Ianto demanded, "Are you serious? Do you even care that my whole life has been terrifying?"

The Doctor smiled and turned to wink at Jack, "See? Told you he would be out."

Ianto growled and folded his legs, falling onto the bedding next to Jack.

"So. That's them gone. You say Gwen is contained?"

"Yes dear boy." The Doctor smiled, "All locked away."

"And what do we do about the silence?" Ianto asked as he flopped onto his side.

"Well, that's not the only problem" the Doctor sighed, flopping down next to Ianto and showing Jack how similar they are.

"Yeah?" Ianto rolled onto his back and regarded his grandfather with a raised eyebrow that he found most endearing.

"My first and foremost problem is that your daughter is River. She is going to tear the worlds apart to get to you when she finds out" he pouted.

"Why is that a bad thing?" Ianto asked. "Do you know how to find her?"

"Well, you see, that's the thing" the Doctor looked at Jack who was quietly pulling Ianto into his arms.

"What! Stop being obtuse" Ianto muttered.

"Well, your daughter is my wife" the Doctor cringed.

"What?"

"River is my wife" the Doctor repeated.

He wasn't prepared for the booming laugh as Ianto rolled on the bed.

"You're not angry?" the Doctor asked with confusion.

"Oh Grandfather, if she's my daughter you probably had little choice in the matter." Ianto giggled, "I would say she is a fiery redhead with a gob the size of Texas if her mother is anything to go by, with my intelligence added she would be terrifying."

"Yes" the Doctor said with a grin. "She rather is."

"She needs a natural disaster capable of destroying worlds named after her."

Ianto sighed and rubbed his face into Jack's chest.

"Good. Wouldn't want her any other way"

"Just remember you said that" the Doctor whispered as he sank under the blankets to consider the real storm coming down on them all.


	30. Chapter 30

30

Ianto was pressed against the wall staring with shock at the woman who stood defiantly pointing a gun at him.

"Come on! Where is he!" she demanded.

Ianto blinked.

She sighed and pointed the gun away as she frowned at him, "Do you speak English? Don't tell me this bloody thing is blinking out again!"

Ianto watched as she pulled her sleeve up, showing a VM similar to Jack's but smaller.

Ianto's eyes widened, "I will never betray him!"

She looked up.

Ianto was defiantly eyeballing her as he stepped away from the wall, then he frowned as he examined her face.

"You look a bit like me Mam, around your eyes, like" he pointed out.

"You really won't tell me where the Doctor is?" she asked softy, wondering if he was simple.

"Him? I thought you wanted Jack!" Ianto snorted.

"What?"

"Your VM. Just like Jack's ya know and …. Oh." Ianto stalled out and stood staring at her.

"Are you OK sweetie?"

"You might want to …. Ah …. It's OK Cariad"

She frowned and then saw he was looking over her shoulder so she turned and looked at the snarling man holding a Webley to her head.

"Jack! She was looking for the Doctor" Ianto explained, "She had a VM and I kind of panicked."

"Oh. Hello, Captain Jack Harkness" Jack held out his hand.

"Hello Captain, Dr River …."

"Song, oh my god! Oh my god! Melody Pond! Oh god, you had better go get grandfather" Ianto sighed.

She spun back to look at him and her hair bounced.

"What does your grandfather have to do with things Sweetie?" she asked as she canted her head in a familiar way.

"My Grandfather is the Doctor" Ianto said as he tried not to hyperventilate, "Your mother and I knew each other. The Silence kidnapped us."

"Yes. They took me too!" River put her gun away as she decided she liked this delicate looking man, "My mother was experimented on."

"I know. I was there in the next bed" Ianto said softly, stepping closer. "You have her fire!"

She smiled and giggled softly, "You are lovely, aren't you?"

"Actually he's not just my grandchild" the Doctor said as he skipped over and grinned at her.

"Oh?" she smiled at the older version she found so playful like an old rock star.

"He's also your natural father, it would seem" the Doctor crowed.

"What?"

"The Silence impregnated your mother with my sperm" Ianto said as he glared at the Doctor, "I am your father."

She sat heavily.

"Oh my god, I sounded just like Darth Vader then" Ianto said to Jack who pouted as he nodded in agreement.

"Excuse me, if you lot are finished your weird blinking party can I get a bloody coffee" Owen snarked from the doorway, "Hey toots."

River looked up and suddenly her fist shot out, catching Owen on the nose and he flew back with a shout of pain.

"You asked for that!" Ianto snorted as he watched River bristle.

"God, but you are your mother!" Ianto laughed softly

"River!" the Doctor chastised, "You and Jack are so similar. Hit first, ask later."

"Works for me Doc, I love to … hit it!" Jack winked and River giggled.

"He's mine!" Ianto said stepping between them, "Jack is mine. Jack, stop flirting with my child!"

"Your …" Owen blinked, "Oh. Shit. She is a looker!"

River smiled and Ianto was the one who moved quickly, this time shoving Owen back into his arse.

"Mine!"


	31. Chapter 31

31

Everyone was talking at once and Ianto decided to make coffee.

He politely took the orders and made a call for some food, might as well feed them as well.

Owen had begged for pizza, making Ianto call three different food places. God, he hoped they all turned up at the same time. Owen was a real prick if his pizza was cold.

He stood at the sink trying to control his heartbeats, so much was happening and his once quiet existence was suddenly exploding around him.

He felt someone behind him and he turned to ask if they wanted coffee or tea.

It wasn't a team member.

It wasn't the doctor either.

Nah.

Not River.

God, he would have settled for a fucking weevil.

In the light, in the bright light of the hub, one was standing in front of him and Ianto felt his balls shrivel into his stomach cavity as it advanced.

He should call out.

He should run.

He was stuck, frozen as it came around the table and he couldn't breathe as it reached for him.

It looked like oil, like feathers fluttering in the wind, like tissue paper floating in water as it's fingers sort of grew. Like spreading liquid, it moved closer and Ianto whimpered with horror.

It touched his arm.

Fire.

Fire and pain.

Ianto found his voice as he screamed.

He threw himself back against the benchtop, not feeling the bite against his hip.

He screamed as more fingers touched and the hand wrapped around his wrist, flowing up to his elbow as he struggled to climb onto the bench.

He could faintly hear Jack's voice screaming his name and he tried to answer but the black sludge had reached his shoulder and he knew his neck as next.

Oh god, oh god.

Tosh's scream was harsh and he made a mental note to get her some honey drink for that.

Then _she_ was there.

River was roaring like a warrior as she tried to grab the thing, her hands slipping through like it was smoke.

It was around his neck now, his eyes burning as it began to squeeze.

Owen was screaming, low and guttural as he reached for the fire extinguisher.

Oh god.

His mouth, oh please not his mouth.

Jack was to him and he could feel Jack grabbing him through the sludge.

Jack was wiping at his face, trying to get it off but Ianto could only lock eyes as he tried to let Jack know that he loved him.

That it was OK.

Jack could see the fear in Ianto's face, knew he was asphyxiating right in front of him.

Choking on black air.

He tried desperately to think of something to help, feeling Ianto's stomach convulsing against him as his diaphragm started to complain.

He had no other thought except to save him.

 _It seems so simple._

Jack did the only thing he could think of.

He slammed his mouth against Ianto's.

Giving him a kiss of pure life.


	32. Chapter 32

32

Owen swung the fire extinguisher to his hip and yelled for River to step back.

He then quietly recited the instructions as he completed them, aiming at the black sludge that now covered both men.

The white gas was cold and Owen hoped like hell that it was as good as holy water to a vampire, if such things could be true.

He saw a hand.

Pink, waving through the smoky cloud of extinguishing gas and he surged forward, snarling as he let it have it.

Gwen joined him with another and they flanked it, both yelling as River took deep breath, closed her eyes and dove in.

"Oh my god, aren't you going to stop her?" Tosh asked the Doctor who was watching with interest.

"Haven't been able to before!" he shrugged as she came back out and gasped for air as she pulled Jack's limp arm.

Jack came out like he was being pulled from quicksand, Ianto held firmly in the crook of his other arm and they both lay still on the grating as Owen grabbed the coffee pot and threw the scalding liquid onto the mess they had left behind.

"Fucker! Get my acids from the bay, I'm going to kill this fucker!" Owen was foaming at the mouth as he started ot stomp on the dissolving black goo.

Jack gasped and blinked, then let out a howl as he rolled Ianto onto his back and started stroking his face as he begged him to answer him.

"Ianto?" Jack whispered as he shook the limp and unresponsive Welshman.

Jack looked imploringly at the Doctor who was now holding Tosh as he looked sadly back at Jack.

Jack sobbed and then his face changed into a snarl of rage and he adjusted his grip on Ianto, then bent to kiss him again.

This time there was a bright glow around them and the air seemed to sizzle as Jack poured as much as he could into the kiss and the Doctor yelled with surprise as he felt the vortex swirling around them.

"Everyone stay exactly where you are!" the Doctor yelled as his hair started to fly about his scalp and Rive looked at him with a look of glee as her own curls danced.

A sound like grinding filled the air and River looked at the Doctor again.

"Oh my god, he holds the heart of the Tardis!" she crowed as she watched Jack joining his life-force to his beloved.

It was only moments but time, being a relative thing, seemed to slow as Jack crushed their mouths together and his tears rolled gently down onto Ianto's face.

Ianto broke the kiss and gasped, as he had in the water pool.

This time there was not the look of confusion, more one if acceptance as he reached up to cling to Jack, rubbing his face against his love's chest.

"Oh Gods" Jack sobbed, rocking Ianto as he looked over at Owen. "Owen, we're wet. We need blankets, I don't want him going into shock"

Owen dropped the extinguisher and ran for the autopsy bay as Gwen bent to pick it up.

River left her husband and knelt to face her father, her hair still straight as she shakily reached out to touch him.

He was so warm that she shifted close and found herself in his lap as he held her and crooned.

"My lovely melody" he said softly, "Oh god, it hurt so much."

"You're wet, but … look!" She leaned back and they all watched as the wet seemed to evaporate like a mist and he laughed.

"I always said you were pretty hot" Jack said softly.

"Why did it attack?" Ianto looked up at his grandfather, "Why the hell did it come into the bright light? They've never risked like that before."

"Maybe it's River being here, two of their favorite things in one space" the Doctor shrugged.

"Oh my god is she safe?" Ianto demanded, holding her a bit tighter and she was touched by his show of affection.

"Let them come" she snarled, "They haven't really met me!"

"I don't want them to!" Ianto said as he shakily got to his feet, accepting the blanket Owen was throwing around him.

"Cariad?" Ianto was wilting and Jack scooped him up, crooning as he hurried to the sofa.

"Oi. I wanna look at him!" Owen groused.

"So do I," Jack snarled, "and he's mine!"

"For fucksake, will ya calm down" Owen sighed, "His wrist. Look!"

"Oh!" Ianto looked at his inflamed wrist with surprise, "I don't even feel it"

"Adrenaline" Owen suggested as he gently took it, "Could be sprained, need … ah. Thanks Tots."

Tosh stood there offering the portable scanner and Owen winked as he accepted it, making her giggle softly.

"I don't see any breaks or separation" Owen muttered, "Ergo, it's sprained."

"Feels … sort of gooey." Ianto frowned.

"Looks like a burn but it's not" Owen squeaked as the Doctor pushed him aside and knelt to examine it as well.

"Hmmmm, interesting. Should ice it, maybe if you have some lovely tea, make a poultice" he offered.

"Tea?"

"It's good for you!" the Doctor spluttered, "Tea is an amazing thing! I love the tea of this planet. Oooo, English breakfast. The best!"

"Tea, yes I'd love a cup" Ianto said in a small plaintive voice and Gwen dropped the extinguishers.

"That's the buzzer for the top office!" Gwen declared, "Let's eat!"

"I'll do the tea" Tosh offered.

Gwen strode up top to collect the orders and Jack helped Ianto to the meeting room, holding him so close that he didn't really have to walk.

River and the Doctor walked behind looking at each other as they watched the open show of affection.


	33. Chapter 33

33

Tosh admitted that it was she, who had released Gwen.

Gwen was still confused about what was happening and the Doctor declared her to be in psychic shock.

"Well, they are upping the ante if they are trying mind control" River frowned, "Do you remember calling Unit?"

"Calling Unit? Why the hell would I call those useless sods!" Gwen spluttered.

"See?" Tosh threw her arms out, "I believe her."

"So do I" Ianto nodded.

Owen looked around the room, "But why?"

They all took a few moments to look at each other, then the Doctor sighed.

"To get Ianto out of the Tardis room" he finally groaned, "Worked, didn't it?"

"Ah shit!" Owen snarled, reaching for an extinguisher.

"They need time" Ianto waved him off, "Looks like they regroup, recharge … or whatever before another sweep."

"Yeah?" Jack considered, it made sense.

"So. Dad!" River said with a wicked grin, "Gonna show me this room?"

"Behave!" Ianto growled without malice, then motioned for her to follow him.

As they walked, she took the time to look at him, seeing the same ears.

That's something, right?

Ear are important?

Ianto smiled and motioned her in as she gasped and then cooed, then she looked around.

"Mama, this is River" Ianto said calmly and the walls pulsed.

"Oh, lovely" River reached out to stroke the wall.

"I just … I need …." Ianto was looking around her and smiled as Jack entered, the pull too great to ignore.

Jack walked over to Ianto and opened his arms, letting Ianto snuggle in.

"So. What do I call you" she asked Jack, "Are you my mummy?"

"Don't" the Doctor snapped in the doorway as Jack paled.

"What?" she was surprised.

Gwen pushed past them and over to Ianto, still intent on apologizing.

The fact that the Silence could control Gwen was reason enough for Ianto to want to settle back in the room, content that she still shielded him.

"It's OK Gwen, I believe you" Ianto said softly, "I was so confused by your sudden change, I should have known they were getting desperate. Gods, I don't want anyone hurt."

"It's OK" the Doctor said as he watched the exchange, "They won't be around much longer. I have a wee trip to make, you stay here my boy. I will be back in a jiffy."

"I want to come with!" River rose, "This is my family they have fucked with."

"Yes, but if you shoot her, we can't negotiate" the Doctor said calmly.

"Who?" Gwen asked with a frown.

"That bloody cyclops bitch" River snarled.

"A cyclops?" Jack grimaced, "They don't deal well."

"Nor a real one, a bitch with an eye patch," River explained with a small grin, "I call her that because she hates it."

"What will you do?" Ianto asked softly, "You will be safe, right?"

"Oh, you darling boy" River sighed, "She will be the one in need of protection."

"Back in a shake of a dead Freltion's tail" the Doctor clapped his hands as she shooed River away.

"If it's dead, would it still shake?" Gwen asked after a few moments of silence.

"Oh yes" Ianto nodded, "According to the files, they continue to show signs of life for at least three hours after decapitation."

"Ew!" Tosh grimaced as Owen laughed.

Jack relaxed as he heard the fading grind of the Tardis, confident that his own friend would sort this out.

If not, Jack would just go there himself.

If it took the rest of his very long life.

And kill whoever controls them.

He would set their world aflame.


	34. Chapter 34

34

The returning Tardis had everyone turning to the corner of the room.

River is the first out, her anger making her shake.

"Bitch is dead!" she snarled.

The Doctor followed, quieter and less angry … more … disappointed.

"You killed her?" Ianto asked with worry.

"No. Her own pets did" she snorted, "Apparently they decided she was not fun anymore."

"So … what now?" Jack asked, watching the Doctor.

"Well, we clean up the stragglers and you're good to go" the Doctor shrugged.

Ianto looked to Jack, unable to accept that it could be so simple.

"Stay here, stay safe" River said calmly as she followed her husband from the room.

"Why?" Ianto called after them.

"Stragglers" came the faint reply.

Ianto looked at Jack with hope, the thought of a future, one without fear of shadows finally here.

Jack hoped it would be that simple.

Somehow, he didn't think so.

They checked the entire place and declared it clean.

Everyone started to clear out any mess and start getting the hub back to normal.

Ianto watched from the mainframe room as they worked, stroking the walls absently, then he rose and made his way to Janet.

She was pleased to see him, moaning softly as she hugged him to her, feeling his fatigue.

Poor baby.

Ianto was so tired, so upset and overwrought.

River watched for a while, still trying to get her head around the fact that this was her father, also her … what. Nephew? Step-Grandson? How did it work?

Could really do your head in if you weren't used to timey-wimey stuff.

She decided to leave them to it, glad he had someone he could go to that wasn't judgmental.

She had the feeling that this team might be a bit cloying and overbearing.

Ianto sighed softly and kissed the leather face of his friend, then started to leave.

This is when he felt it.

He turned to Janet with a yelp and she let out a roar as she felt it too.

Everyone up in the hub turned as they heard the roar and Jack swore as he started to run.

The Doctor was right behind him as everyone looked around with confusion.

They entered the cells and found them empty.

Ianto was gone.


	35. Chapter 35

35

Jack was beside himself.

He roared and railed against the walls of the corridor as he raced up to the main hub, already calling to Tosh for CCTV.

A flicker of the lights.

A shadow.

Gone.

Jack fell to his knees as he started to roar.

.

.

.

.

Ianto was aware of cold.

He opened his eyes and looked around with confusion, not recognizing the room.

Then he remembered and started to struggle in the restraints.

He screamed for Jack.

He raged at the blinking red light.

He sobbed for himself.

Then he stilled as he heard a returning growl.

Ianto lay still, testing the restraints again and the faint noise egged him on.

A scream, followed by more.

These restraints were quite good, they were strong.

But he would never have chosen them.

Not for her.

He started to laugh as Janet rampaged outside the cold, sterile room.

.

.

.

Ianto blinked as he was suddenly looking at … well … Ianto.

"You can mimic?" he asked with surprise.

"When we must"

"She is angry" Ianto sighed, "Please don't hurt her, she is only scared for me."

"What is she?"

"We don't know where they come from. We call them Weevils" Ianto said as he closed his eyes and let images and memories flood his mind.

He opened his eyes and watched his doppelganger nod as it considered.

"You are proven to be our most interesting pet" it informed him.

"I am no more a pet than she is" Ianto bristled, "I am a prisoner. I am injured!"

"Injured?"

"My wrist, your restraints are too tight, you draw blood" Ianto said, then snorted, "But I am just a thing to you!"

Another scream , closer this time.

"Please. Don't hurt her" Ianto begged, "She is my friend."

"She is not yours, not of your kind" his mirror image frowned.

"Love does not exist in similarities; if it did I would never have fallen in love with a former Time Agent," Ianto scoffed, "Bloody flirting, pain in the arse!"

His other self canted its head and studied him.

The door flew in and slammed against the wall as Janet finally found him.

She surged forward crooning as she tore at the table, trying to free her baby.

"Oh Janet" Ianto sighed as he reached out and touched a bloodied cheek, "What did they do to you my love?"

Janet moaned and rubbed her face into his chest.

His other self considered.

Ianto chose to ignore him. It. Hir. Whatever!

He cuddled Janet and sang softly to calm her.

"What is the name of your chosen mate?"

"Captain Jack Harkness" Ianto said absently, "Face of Boe, they used to call him."

A small nose alerted him to another being, this one more like a giraffe than a person.

A poor imitation.

"Boe?"

"Boeshane peninsular, yes." Ianto sighed, "Look, what are you going to do now? Grandfather will kill you, if not him then his wife, my lovely daughter River surely will. If they bring Jack he will just tear the place apart to show his rage.""

They considered and looked at one another.

Ianto rolled his eyes.


	36. Chapter 36

36

The moment Jack stopped yelling was the moment he saw Janet standing in the water pool.

He held his breath as everyone followed his gaze.

"Fuck" Owen huffed.

"Language!" Ianto's voice echoed as he stepped around the water tower, looking at Jack with a soft frown.

"Were .. .I mean …" Jack waved his arms as Ianto knew he would and he rolled his eyes.

Been doing a lot of that lately.

"Cariad, it doesn't matter" Ianto said softly, stepping into his arms, "It's over now."

"It is?"

"Apparently they don't want to argue with the beloved of the Face of Boe!"

Jack laughed, "Gods, you told them that?"

"Still Rear of the Year in my books!" Ianto said softly as he leaned in for a kiss.

Janet scoffed at them, looking eerily like Owen as she looked down her nos and snorted.

Owen gaped as Ianto laughed.

"She sees you as her equal" Ianto said between giggles, "Ya muppet!"

"Oi!" Owen growled, then preened back at Janet.

"Come on then missy" Owen said calmly, "Back to that cell of yours. I changed your bedding for you and there's a pumpkin pie waiting for someone."

Janet let out a squeal and took off, lopping back to the containment area.

"I didn't know she likes those" Ianto's eyes narrowed, "You been holding out on me!"

"Well, a man has to have some secrets" Owen preened.

Ianto looked over at Jack and nodded.

Yes, a man does.

.

.

.

Thanks to everyone for reading, commenting, yelling at your screens, laughing …I hope.

Yes, it's not over, there will be a sequel but you know me … it'll happen when it happens.


End file.
